METADATA

John Hargreaves

Technical Support officer

JISC Digital Media

Before we begin

• Why are we going to all this trouble?

• Staffordshire Past Track

• http://www.staffspasttrack.org.uk

Metadata

• Definition

• Types

• Location

• Schemas

• Vocabularies

• Examples

Definition

Common definition:

Information about information

For my purposes:

Structured information about information

Structure

Organised information is created using

Schemas (element sets)

Vocabularies (values)

Purposes

– Finding, identifying and understanding a resourceDescriptive/Discovery metadatae.g. “Title”, “Subject”

– Creating, managing andpreserving a resourceAdministrative, Technical, and Preservation metadatae.g. “Format”, “Filesize”

Purposes

– Organising and relating resourcesStructural and Packaging metadatae.g. “Is part of”, “Master image location”

– Using a resourceUsage and User-contributed metadatae.g. “Published in”, “License requirements”, “User rating”

Purposes

Funder requirements…

Images for Education - A JISC funded project.

http://imagesforeducation.org.uk/

Metadata - Attributes

– Different ‘levels’ of a resource(e.g. item, component, collection)

– Different ‘layers’ within a resource(e.g. physical resources, intermediaries, digital resources)

– Things outside the resource(e.g. rights ownership)

Metadata can have different origins…

– “Implicit”– derived from the image itself(typically technical data)

– “Explicit” – brought to the image(typically descriptive metadata;might be ‘legacy’ data, or newly created)

– New metadata might be:• Provided by an image contributor• Added by a cataloguer• Added by a user• All of above

… and can exist in different locations

– Embedded within the digital resource itself

– Held in a traditional database– Within an XML encoding

<image>

<ID> Jga-0019a </ID>

<Title> Sanctuary of Apollo </Title>

</image>

“Standards”

– Commonly, consistently applied formats or processes; measurable; well documented; endorsed by somebody

– JISC Digital Media recommends:• Where there are clear standards, use them• Where standards are unclear/competing, follow

models of good practice within your ‘community’• Where there are no standards/models, create your

own (and document them carefully!)• Watch this space…

Be very aware of differences

– How do they deal with different “layers” within a resource?(e.g. images of images of images…)

– What purposes are they serving? (description, administration, presevervation…)

Choosing, adapting,and mapping schemas

– Ideally we’d pull a schema off the shelf and begin cataloguing

– Choice is clear for some collections but difficult for others (esp. where collection spans resource types or communities)

– Adaptation is common and generally necessary (but needs to be done carefully!)

– You might be combining several standard schemas or developing your own and mapping to standards for particular purposes

Dublin Core International (ISO 15836-2003)

cross-community standard for

describing digital resources

http://dublincore.org/ Concentrates on descriptive/

discovery metadata “1:1 rule” (1 record for 1 thing) Frequently adapted, mapped-to,

used to achieve interoperability

TitleCreatorSubjectDescriptionPublisherContributorDateTypeFormatIdentifierSourceLanguageRelationCoverageRights

VRA Core – Visual Resources Association– Version 4.0 is now also

available– Concentrates on

descriptive/discovery metadata– For art and cultural images – Influenced by Dublin Core– 1:1 rule (Work/Image)– Frequently adapted– http://www.vraweb.org/

Record TypeTypeTitleMeasurementsMaterialTechniqueCreatorDateLocationID NumberStyle/PeriodCultureSubjectRelationDescriptionSourceRights

SEPIADESSafeguarding European PhotographicImages for Access

– For photographic collections – Very extensive, with many sub-categories– Covers description and administration, physical works and

their digital reproductions– Multi-level description which can describe a whole collection

at many levels at once (based on archival metadata)– http://www.knaw.nl/ecpa/sepia/workinggroups/wp5/

sepiadestool/sepiadesdef.pdf

CDWACategories for the Description of Works of Art • Describes art works or cultural objects

• Museum/gallery community• Extensive with many sub-categories• Covers description and administration, original

works and their reproductions• Can describe complex objects with multiple parts• Note that there is a ‘lite’ version• http://www.getty.edu/research/

conducting_research/standards/cdwa/index.html

Some Established Mappings

– Mapping metadata schemas:• Getty crosswalks:

http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/standards/intrometadata/crosswalks.html

• UKOLN resources:http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/

Vocabularies

Image courtesy of stock.xchng

Why Use Controlled Vocabularies?

– Better retrieval

– Improved cataloguing efficiency and consistency

– ‘Disambiguate’ the language (e.g. ‘bank’)

– Put things in their place (e.g. classify, identify relationships)

– Support interoperability (improvedcross-searching and metadata sharing)

Ways to Control Vocabularies

– Data entry rules or guidelines– Formal subject headings– Thesauri– Classifications– Authority lists (people, places, events…)– In-house keyword lists– Uncontrolled cataloguer-added keywords?– Combination of approaches

What about ‘Uncontrolled’ Keywords?

– Made up by a cataloguer at the point of cataloguing

– Not an either/or situation – metadata can accommodate both

– A mix of both can assist with retrieval

Alternative Vocabularies•Consider some more creative approaches:

– Ask some of your users to ‘catalogue’ a representative sample of your collection

– Get your users to do the cataloguing!

– Get the technology to do the cataloguing!(e.g. CBIR)

– Draw on vocabularies from other communities, traditions and disciplines

– Use an alternative vocabulary source(e.g. a children’s encyclopaedia, book index)

CBIR & Community Involvement

Exploring Flickr by colour http://labs.systemone.at/retrievr/

Using Flickr to catalogue a collectionhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/Library_of_Congress/

Galaxy Zoo - http://www.galaxyzoo.org/

Further Support and Guidance

Web site: http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/

helpdesk: http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/helpdesk/

JISC Mail:https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A1=ind0907&L=JISCDIGITALMEDIA