Sherry Lake Candidate for Metadata Specialist for User Projects

The Big Red Bow For Modeling Virginia Metadata Census Weather Traffic

What is Metadata? Information about an information resource of any media type or format. Metadata Fundamentals for All Librarians, Priscilla Caplan, Information To….. Identify Find Access Manage Help in using the data

Community Specific Metadata metadata for describing structural divisions in textstandard for encoding finding aids so that they can be searched and viewed online describe works of visual culture and images. metadata for describing maps, and geospatial datasetsstandard for description of social and behavioral sciences datasets TEI EAD VRA CSDGM (FGDC) DDI

General Metadata Schemes Format used in traditional libraries MARC METS GDMS Dublin Core MODS DescMeta Library of Congress metadata for describing complex digital library Objects. It encodes descriptive, administrative, and structural metadata Developed by UVA’s Digital Research and Development Group for collection and data objects A simple international standard metadata for describing digital resources across disciplines Descriptive metadata, derivative of MARC21 UVa’s descriptive metadata for Digital Library objects

Cross Discipline Project Digital Library Research and Development Brown Science and Engineering Library Geospatial and Statistical Data Center Civil Engineering Systems and Information Engineering Various Undergraduate and Graduate Students

Project Goals To provide easy access to a diverse collection of data resources about Virginia To design a general approach to collection building (and metadata) that can be applied to all kinds of statistical and science datasets

Project Scope United States Census of Population and Housing 2000, Virginia: Summary File 3 Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Data National Climatic Data Center (Virginia), Climate Surface Data

The Data Problem Three different datasets  Space and time  Definitions and terms Various “native” data formats  SPSS  Comma Delimited  Oracle Database Lots of Data for Virginia  135 counties, 48 files each (Census)  1948 – 2005, 1326 historical & active stations (Climate)

Simplifying the Problem Choosing a subset of the data to test the design Breaking the data down into smaller parts; defining “Datasets Objects” Choosing a common file format; creating “Database Objects”

Modeling Virginia Objects Modeling Virginia CensusTrafficWeather 2000 Station DataClimate Division 1Climate Division 2Incident Data CountySchool Districts HamptonVa BeachNorfolk File 1File 2File 3

Dataset Object Metadata Metadata Purpose Metadata Standard 1. To describe the hierarchical dataset 2. To use for discovery 3. To tie the datasets together 1. GDMS (General Descriptive Modeling Scheme) 2. Position for use in UVa’s Digital Library

Database Object Metadata Do the datasets have “native” metadata? What existing standards are best suited for numerical data? FGDC? DDI? Other Considerations?

Choosing a Standard Review of FGDC and DDI with the following criteria:  Data file description as a whole  Physical description of the file format  Variable level description  Variable, physical description

Using the DDI Standard Created a Data Dictionary  Applying the Digital Library’s Minimum Metadata Requirements  Using only metadata elements that apply to these database objects and the project

Training with Metadata Instructed members how to create DDI files  Advised on metadata content  Created DDI-XML Template Created DDI-XML Template One-on-one training with Nesstar PublisherNesstar  Created Nesstar Templates Created Nesstar Templates One-on-one and group training on GDMS Images

Reviewing Metadata Checked sample DDI mark-up files Discussed the use of other DDI elements Group review of GDMS output Review of Metadata is continuing

Results Demo of Modeling Virginia (Census Data)

What I Learned All data objects are different and each have different metadata needs Be clear, consistent and specific Don’t be afraid to alter standards to fit your need: Document your Practice! Metadata must be reviewed and reviewed Include information creators in metadata creation.

Metadata the Big Red Bow