Metadata Schema Registries: update on current activity Rachel Heery, UKOLN, University of Bath September 2005

Some current activities… DCMI Registry (Dublin Core Metadata Initiative) JISC Metadata Schema Registry (UK Joint Information Systems Committee of the Higher Education Funding Agency) NSDL Registry (National Science Digital Library; Cornell University and University of Washington) DEST Registry (Department of Education, Science and Training, Australia)

DCMI Registry: benefits Simplify the discovery of terms and illustrate the relationship between terms. Promote the use of Dublin Core Provide a trusted source of information about Dublin Core terms and related vocabularies. Make the registry software available to the community as open-source

DCMI Registry: current status Developed by Harry Wagner, OCLC, with input from DCMI Registry WG Deployed by DCMI to provide navigational access to Dublin Core terms Software available using Subversion from OCLC Web and Application interfaces supported Search & browse functions provided International support for 25 languages Support for SOAP and REST style Web services Full support for local extensions Distributed as open source, built entirely on open source/open standards Deployed as a distributed architecture “Light” version also available

DCMI Registry: 2005 accomplishments Version –Better packaging of software –Statistics package Added metadata and UI translations for Maori Updated Greek metadata and UI translations New installation: National Library of New Zealand Registry Lite –Simple installation (binary deliverable) –In-memory - no persistence –Client-side XML transformations –REST-only application interface

DCMI Registry: distributed sites OCLC, Dublin Ohio University of Tsukuba, Japan –Mitsuharu Nagamori The University of Goettingen, Germany –Thomas Fischer The Library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China National Library of New Zealand –Karen Rollitt

DCMI Registry Lite Designed for easy implementation. Tested successfully with Redhat Linux servers and should work for other Linux / Unix operating systems Windows servers may require a minor tweak in the way directories are accessed. Supports vocabularies other than Dublin Core. Vocabulary must be encoded in RDF The application war file and source code are available here: There is still some work to be completed!

JISC Metadata Schema Registry Funded by the UK Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) which funds initiatives in higher education One of several ‘shared services’ for the JISC’s digital Information Environment Registering ‘application profiles’: customised, extended versions of standard schemas Partners –ILRT, University of Bristol (Dave Beckett, Nikki Rogers) –UKOLN, University of Bath (Pete Johnston, Rachel Heery) –Becta, CETIS

JISC Metadata Schema Registry: motivation Requirement from projects to –Locate appropriate terms –Ensure they use authoritative version –Manage evolution of term sets Requirement from funders for –Projects to declare terms in use –Projects to re-use terms where possible –Reduction of duplicated effort

JISC Metadata Schema Registry: benefits Single point of access for the UK education community to information about terms used in DC and IEEE LOM Promotion of existing metadata solutions Increased interoperability between schemas as a result of re-use across applications Encouragement of harmonisation between ‘ competing ’ standards

JISC Metadata Schema Registry: Phase 1 Deliverables 2004 – 2005 Full set of documentation to support development of MSR tools including –usage scenarios –functional requirements –data models DC application profile IEEE LOM application profile

JISC Metadata Schema Registry: Phase 1 Demonstrators: Registry Web site allows users to browse and query existing data from the registry server Registry data server provides a persistent store for data about metadata terms and their use Data creation tool which enables users to create descriptions of their metadata vocabularies and application profiles which can be submitted to the registry server A small set of DC and IEEE LOM data created for indexing by the registry server Workshop was held in March to evaluate tools and provide feedback on requirements Evaluation report on the basis of the deliverables and a workshop Note…. Tools not ready to launch!

JISC Metadata Schema Registry: useful links –Project web site –Registry Web Site 1 –Registry Web Site 2 –Data creation tool –Available from

JISC Metadata Schema Registry: Phase 2 To October 2006 Ensure the IEMSR meets user requirements Provide a more focused business case Enhance the Registry tools (i.e. the registry server and schema creation tools) to a standard whereby users can evaluate the demonstrator service. Enhance the Registry Web interface to a standard whereby users can evaluate the demonstrator service. Improve machine to machine interfaces to the Registry

NSDL Metadata Registry NSF funded, start up around now Registry blog Complements the NSDL Metadata Repository To enable NSDL projects to identify, declare and publish metadata schemas and schemes (controlled vocabularies) Initial priority on controlled vocabularies Exploring use of DCMI registry software /

Australian DEST funded Registry DART (Dataset Acquisition, Accessibility and Annotation e-Research Technology Project) Australian Research Information Infrastructure grant Centralized repository/registry of metadata schemas Light registry, links to XML schemas?

Collaboration? Sharing information on user requirements Building broader business case Reaching consensus on application profile data model Shared test data Peer review Joint dissemination