Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 Dublin Core Metadata Stuart Weibel Consulting Research Scientist OCLC Office of Research purl.org/net/weibel October 9, 1997

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 What is Metadata? l Data about data… structured descriptive information about other data  Library cataloging  Rights management  Database schemata  Content ratings  … many others l Its what libraries have done for as longs as there have been libraries

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 We have MARC and AACR2… Why metadata? A resource description community is characterized by common semantic, structural, and syntactic conventions for exchange of resource description information Libraries MARCAACR2

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 The Internet Commons embraces many formal and informal Resource Description Communities Museums GeospatialLibraries Internet Commons Commerce Whatever... Scientific Data Home Pages

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 Interoperability l Using metadata in a global distributed environment requires agreements and conventions that go beyond existing resource description communities

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 The Dublin Core Metadata Workshop Series l How to improve resource discovery on the Web?  simple resource description semantics l Build an interdisciplinary consensus about a core element set for resource discovery:  simple and intuitive  cross-disciplinary  international  flexible

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 Metadata Workshop Series Milestones l Chicago WWW Conference Oct, 1994 l OCLC/NCSA Metadata Workshop Mar, 1995 l OCLC/UKOLN Warwick Workshop April, 1996 l W3C Distributed Indexing and Searching Workshop May, 1996 l CNI/OCLC Image Metadata Workshop Sep, 1996 l Fifteen-Element Dublin Core Dec, 1996 l DC-4, Canberra, Australia Mar, 1997 l Meta Access Summit at RLG July, 1997 l EPA Metadata Registry Workshop July, 1997 l DC-5, Helsinki, Finland Oct, 1997

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 Dublin Core Metadata Workshop Series l DC-1: OCLC/NCSA Metadata Workshop Mar, 1995  13 element Dublin Core  Interdisciplinary consensus l DC-2: OCLC/UKOLN Warwick Workshop April, 1996  Warwick Framework  Syntax issues

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 Dublin Core Workshop Series (continued) l DC-3: CNI/OCLC Image Metadata Workshop Sep, 1996  Images are in scope  15 element core l DC-4: Canberra Metadata Workshop Mar, 1997  Minimalists and Structuralists  Canberra Qualifiers (additional information useful for interpretation of metadata)

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 The Dublin Core Metadata Element Set l Title l Author/Creator l Subject /Keywords l Description l Publisher l Other Contributor l Date l Resource Type l Format l Resource Identifier l Source l Language l Relation l Coverage l Rights Management

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 Tom Baker’s Theory of Pidgin Metadata l Pidgin languages result from the need for communication among groups who do not share a common language:  simplification and hybridization l Creolization is the process of complexification of a pidgin language.  Addition of semantic and syntactic nuance that supports the inherent complexity of natural language expressivity

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 Dublin Core and Pidgin Metadata l The current state of the Dublin Core reflects the pidginization of resource description. l Movement towards complexification is evident. l The emergence of metadata creoles is a natural consequence of adoption by diverse communities of the pidgin as a mother tongue l Tension between interoperability (comprehension) and richer specificity is inevitable

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 Museums Dublin Core LibrariesGeospatial Domain- specific Metadata Pidgin Metadata Metadata Creoles Pidginization and Creolization Grey literature

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 Recent Dublin Core Publications lJlJournal of Digital Libraries WWeibel and Lagoze, Special JoDL Metadata Issue lIlImage Metadata Workshop (DC-3) Report WWeibel and Miller, DLib Magazine, January lClCanberra Metadata Workshop (DC-4) Report WWeibel, Iannella, and Cathro, DLib Magazine, June,

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 Tangible Outcomes of the DC Workshop Series

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 Embedded HTML Metadata l HTML 2.0: simple embedded metadata l HTML 4.0: richer metadata with qualifiers  New META Attributes  LANG (language of the content of the descriptor)  SCHEME (formal qualifier)  SUB-ELEMENT (deployed via the dot syntax extension

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 RDF: Resource Description Framework l W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) initiative l RDF is the instantiation of the Warwick Framework for the Web l RDF will be the foundation for an architecture for metadata on the Web Resource description Electronic commerce Site mapping Third party rating Digital signatures

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 Pseudo-RDF Example Stuart Weibel’s Home Page Stuart Weibel metadata, Dublin Core, URN, electronic publishing, book reviews

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 RDF: Why is it important? l Political imperatives for deployment l Software infrastructure will be ubiquitous (and come for free in browsers and servers) l RDF provides a model and syntactical framework  the contents of the framework will be determined by stakeholder communities via independently developed and maintained metadata element sets  e.g.: MARC, DC, TEI, GILS, IAFA, Ratings….

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 Further Information l W3 Metadata Overview and RDF Working Group Home Page l Dublin Core Home Page purl.org/metadata/dublin_core

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 DC Implementation Projects l 30+ major implementation projects in 10 countries l Interdisciplinary and international recognition as the lingua franca for resource discovery metadata for electronic resources l Support in the library and museum communities for adoption of DC for non-electronic resource description

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 What do we need next? l Element refinements and stability l User guides and standards of practice l Progress on Internationalization l Extensibility standards l Tools l Standardization path

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 DC-5 The Helsinki Metadata Workshop The National Library of Finland and OCLC, in collaboration with The National Science Foundation and the Coalition for Networked Information 75 registrants 16 countries 4 continents

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 The Process l Reports on related developments l Discussion of recent activities l Implementers reports l Breakout groups l Ad hoc working groups l Small group reports l Argue until done l Non-stop for 20 hours a day

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 DC-5 Objectives l Share implementation experiences l Element refinements and stability l Define Sub-elements and resource types l User guides and standards of practice l Extensibility standards l Standardization path

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 Results l Data Model l Clearer understanding of SOURCE and RELATION l DATE field definition l Intended semantics for additional sub-elements l Closer DC-W3C collaboration

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 RFCs first steps toward standardization l Simple DC semantics (the minimalist position) l Simple DC syntax HTML l DC semantics with qualifiers l DC syntax with qualifiers  HTML 2.0  HTML 4.0  RDF

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 DC-5 Results Working Groups l Data Model WG l Sub-elements l DATE sub-element WG l RELATION WG l Z39.50 WG l Rights Management

Stuart Weibel OCLC, Inc. October, 1997 Existing Working Groups l DC in Multiple Languages l COVERAGE WG l User Guides (resurrected)