An overview of collection-level metadata Applications of Metadata BCS Electronic Publishing Specialist Group, Ismaili Centre, London, 29 May 2002 Pete Johnston UKOLN, University of Bath Bath, BA2 7AY UKOLN is supported by: URL

BCS Electronic Publishing Specialist Group, London, 29 May An overview of collection-level metadata Context : the information landscape Collections and collection description CLD in practice Conclusions: navigating the landscape

BCS Electronic Publishing Specialist Group, London, 29 May Context User –not interested in functional/structural organisation of resource provider –doesnt want to negotiate multiple interfaces –access across resource provider boundaries Service providers –construct various user-centred portals –surface content from multiple resource providers Resource providers –deliver content through multiple services Crossing of boundaries between contexts Rich, complex information landscape

BCS Electronic Publishing Specialist Group, London, 29 May What is a collection? Collection –an aggregation of physical or digital items Aggregates of, e.g. –natural objects: fossils, mineral samples… –created objects: artefacts, documents, records… –digital resources: documents, images, multimedia objects, data, software… –digital surrogates of physical objects: documents, images… –metadata: catalogue records, item descriptions, collection-level descriptions (!)…

BCS Electronic Publishing Specialist Group, London, 29 May What is a collection? Various criteria for aggregation, e.g. –By location –By type/form of item –By provenance of item –By source/ownership of item –By nature of item content –…. Permanent, temporary Discrete, distributed

BCS Electronic Publishing Specialist Group, London, 29 May Why collection description? Enable provider to –manage collections –disclose information about collections –overview of otherwise uncatalogued items –summary where item-level detail inappropriate Enable user to –discover/locate (physical/digital) collections –select (physical/digital) collections to explore/search on basis of summary description Enable software agents to –select digital collections to search on behalf of user –perform searches across multiple digital collections

BCS Electronic Publishing Specialist Group, London, 29 May A Model for Collections Research Support Libraries Programme –Support for academic researchers –discovery of/access to collections –collaborative management of collections –Primarily physical (library/archive) collections Michael Heaney, An Analytical Model of Collections and their Catalogues Based primarily on a library and archival view of collection... –… but intended to be applicable across wide range of collection types Functionally concerned with finding, identifying

BCS Electronic Publishing Specialist Group, London, 29 May A Typology of Collection Description Unitary –info about collection as whole, not about items Hierarchic –info about collection as whole, and about items (and relationships between items and whole) Analytic –info about items in collection Indexing –info derived from items in collection

BCS Electronic Publishing Specialist Group, London, 29 May A Schema for Collection Description CLD is metadata record RSLP Collection Description Schema –structured set of metadata attributes –simple description of subset of entities in Heaney model –Collection –Location –Agents Based on Dublin Core where possible RSLP CD instance can be expressed in RDF –RDF/XML syntax for serialising descriptions

BCS Electronic Publishing Specialist Group, London, 29 May Administrator Location Schema vs. model Collection Item Content Collector Owner Producer Creator

BCS Electronic Publishing Specialist Group, London, 29 May A Schema for Collection Description RSLP CD schema supports creation of unitary collection description Not a substitute for existing richer schemas for CLD –a means of creating simple, high-level descriptions for wide range of collections Cross-domain –Different ideas of collections –Different criteria for defining collections –Different ways of describing collections –But useful/possible to agree on broadly common view…?

BCS Electronic Publishing Specialist Group, London, 29 May CLD in practice: Archives Principle that value of individual record derives from context, relationships Archival fonds –collection defined by provenance –records of organisation or individual –collection of physical items –made available by a physical service Archival description –emphasis on multi-level resource description –well-established standards for unitary and hierarchical CD –Encoded Archival Description (EAD) SGML/XML DTD

BCS Electronic Publishing Specialist Group, London, 29 May CLD in practice: Archives Collection described by an EAD CLD CLD –used in local resource discovery service by repository –submitted to domain-specific service e.g. Archives Hub –mapped/transformed to simple, high-level CLD which might be used in cross-domain service

BCS Electronic Publishing Specialist Group, London, 29 May CLD in practice : RSLP Library collections –collections defined by –location –subject of content –source/owner –collections of physical items –made available by a physical service Library collection-level description –in past, informal, unstructured –use of RSLP CD schema by RSLP projects CLDs –used in project-specific services –programme-wide service?

BCS Electronic Publishing Specialist Group, London, 29 May CLD in practice : the JISC Information Environment Content made available as collections Physical collections –of physical items (e.g. books) Digital collections –of digital items (text, image, audio-video, software, datasets etc) –of digital metadata records –describing physical items (e.g. MARC records in OPAC) –describing digital items (e.g. DC records in subject gateway database) –describing physical collections (e.g. EAD CLDs in Archives Hub database)

BCS Electronic Publishing Specialist Group, London, 29 May CLD in practice : the JISC Information Environment Web Content End-user End-user needs to join services together manually - as well as learning multiple user interfaces Authentication Authorisation Currently….

BCS Electronic Publishing Specialist Group, London, 29 May CLD in practice : the JISC Information Environment Collections of digital metadata records made available by multiple digital services e.g. –via provider Web site (HTML only) –as OAI repository –as Z39.50 target Portals need to determine –which digital collections are available –what digital services available to access collections IE service registry contains –CLDs for digital collections –descriptions of associated services

BCS Electronic Publishing Specialist Group, London, 29 May CLD in practice : the JISC Information Environment Web Content End-user Portal Broker or Aggregator Authentication Authorisation Collection Description User Profiles End-user is automatically presented with relevant resources through relevant channels Thesauri Service Desc. The vision….

BCS Electronic Publishing Specialist Group, London, 29 May CLD in practice : the JISC Information Environment Portal –can present dynamically-updated view of the JISC information landscape –view may be tailored to user preferences Resource provider –can surface resources through multiple services/channels

BCS Electronic Publishing Specialist Group, London, 29 May Conclusion: navigating the landscape CLDs as resource discovery metadata CLDs support survey of information landscape to identify areas rather than specific features - to identify rainforest rather than to retrieve an analysis of the canopy fauna of the Amazon basin (Heaney, 2000) The navigator of the landscape may be a human researcher or a software tool

BCS Electronic Publishing Specialist Group, London, 29 May Acknowledgements UKOLN is funded by Resource: the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the UK higher and further education funding councils, as well as by project funding from the JISC and the European Union. UKOLN also receives support from the University of Bath where it is based.