2nd OAF Workshop: 6./7. December 2002 Lisbon Subject Interoperability Breakout Session Facilitator: Paul Child 7. December 2002

2nd OAF Workshop: 6./7. December 2002 Lisbon Starting Questions Is it necessary to have interoperability between different subjects? Is it possible to have interoperability between different subjects? At what level? How much of it?

2nd OAF Workshop: 6./7. December 2002 Lisbon Subject interoperability issues Granularity – between Data - Service Provider (Enhancements?) Language is a serious barrier to interoperability – international classification schemas are more difficult for some disciplines than for others Disambiguation between subject areas Metadata quality Self archiving (How to control self archivers

2nd OAF Workshop: 6./7. December 2002 Lisbon Possible Elements of Solution Automatic, semi-automatic classification Cross Walks, Mapping Just as DC is the lowest common denominator for metadata description, OAI needs a multilingual lowest common denominator for subjects – can this be used for harvesting sets? – the SP may then enhance the subject description

2nd OAF Workshop: 6./7. December 2002 Lisbon Discussion Points Need a community at a managable size either geographically or disciplinary in order to agree on a schemas A subject approach is necessary to reveal hidden resources

2nd OAF Workshop: 6./7. December 2002 Lisbon Action Points OI! Plans to compile guidelines for best practise Discuss further in OAF info-Mailing list Collect examples and links at the OAF webpage