DUBLIN CORE: BEYOND THE LIBRARY David Hirsch LIS Knowledge Organization Dr. Selenay Aytac Spring 2013

Introduction Benefits of Dublin Core Metadata Element Set Dublin Core Elements and Qualifiers Uses of DC Outside the Library Guidelines for DC Metadata Creation

Benefits of Dublin Core (DC) What is Dublin Core? Metadata standard of 15 elements, used for describing and cataloging electronic resources. Result of 1995 workshop by Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) in Dublin, Ohio. Benefits? Elements are optional. Elements are repeatable. Elements allow qualifiers for refinement. DC can describe all types of resources, including new electronic and digital data types. DC can cover descriptive, structural and administrative metadata.

DUBLIN CORE ELEMENTS Content Elements Title Subject Description Type Source Relation Coverage Intellectual Property Elements Creator Publisher Contributor Rights Instantiation Elements Date Format Identifier Language Additional Elements Audience Provenance RightsHolder

Dublin Core Record with Qualifiers Dublin Core qualifiers can add refinement and granularity to element descriptions. Like elements, qualifiers are optional and repeatable. This DC record includes qualifiers for Identifier, Description, and Subject elements.

Using DC: Example The Walters Islamic Manuscript Digital Project Walters Art Museum, Baltimore Md. Digitization project of art and calligraphy, 9-19 th century 2 Metadata Entry Steps 1. Before digitization: Preliminary metadata entered into web-based database 2. After digitization: Cataloger adds more information. Authors, artists, scribes, dates, materials, languages, keywords…

Using DC: Example Digital Video Repositories Ball State University Libraries’ Digital Media Repository: Ball State’s video collection, includes commencement speeches, WWII films. Descriptive records mapped into Dublin Core. Folkstreams.net: documentary films of American folk culture. Mapped into Dublin Core. Shannon County Film: original rolls of documentary film footage. MARC to Dublin Core crosswalk.

Using DC: Example Digital Video Repositories (continued) Australian Center for the Moving Image (ACMI): Collections of film, television, video clips – used at lending library, theater screenings, student filmmakers’ work. Metadata records described directly with Dublin Core. NJVid (New Jersey Digital Video Repository): Centralized video portal from educational institutions in NJ. Record descriptions in Dublin Core, MARC, and MODS. Windows on Maine: Streaming videos on history of Maine. Union catalog, MARC to Dublin Core Crosswalk.

Using DC: Example Dspace Dspace is an open source digital asset management tool used worldwide by institutions “including public and private colleges and universities and a variety of non-profit corporations.” (Kurtz, 2009) Dublin Core’s elements and qualifiers are central to Dspace.

Guidelines for DC Metadata Creation Guideline #1: “Resource description should be as complete as possible.” Try your best to fill as much detail as you can, see what can be supplied that can’t be found when examining the resource. Leave element blank as a last resort. Guideline #2: “Resource description should be consistent.” Consistency helps human users with information retrieval, reduces cognitive overload. Use controlled values when possible. Coleman, 2005, p. 157

References Bird, S., Simons, G. (2003). Extending Dublin Core metadata to support the description and discovery of language resources. Computers and the Humanities, 37, Bockrath, D., Case, C., Fetters, E.R., & Herr, H. (2010). Parchment to pixel: the Walters Islamic manuscript digital project. Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America, 29, Coleman, A. (2005). From cataloging to metadata: Dublin Core records for the library catalog. Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 40, Kurtz, M. (2009). Dublin Core, DSpace, and a brief Analysis of three university repositories. Information Technology and Libraries, 29, Taylor, A. G. & Joudrey, D. N. (2009). The Organization of Information (3rd Ed.). Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited Weagley, J., Gelches, E., & Park, J. (2010). Interoperability and metadata quality in digital video repositories. Journal of Library Metadata, 10, doi: /