METADATA Decisions for Your Digital Collection 1 1. Knowing the differences 2. Principles to be followed 3. Other considerations 4. Working with an existing Metadata element set

1. Knowing the differences a) Textual vs. non-textual resources b) Document-like vs. non-document-like objects c) Original vs. digital surrogates of the works d) Collection-level vs. item-level 2

3 A) Textual vs. Non-textual Text: Would allow for full text searching or automatic extraction of keywords. Marked by HTML or XML tags. Tags have semantic meanings. Newspaper dated July 16, 1976, reporting the initial discovery of burials in Granado Cave.

4 IST681 Metadata Newspaper dated July 16, 1976, reporting the initial discovery of burials in Granado Cave. Discovery of Granado Cave In 1976, Mr. Frank Granado, a surveyor from Pecos, discovered prehistoric burials in a previously unknown cave in the Rustler Hills. An article soon appeared in the local paper. The site was brought to the attention of the state archaeologist, who suggested that Dr. Hamilton meet with Mr. Granado and arrange to see the cave. Mr. Granado was very cooperative and it soon became clear that the cave was located near Caldwell Shelter No. 1 and Brooks Cave. Granado Cave was named after its discoverer and given the official archaeological designation 41CU8. During preliminary testing and excavation in 1976, the archaeological importance of the cave became evident. Mr. Shelby Brooks, the owner of the land on which Granado Cave and Brooks Cave are located, allowed both to be named State Archaeological Landmarks (SALs). As such, they became the first SALs located on private property in Texas. In June 1978, Dr. Hamilton returned to Granado Cave with a team of four archaeologists to undertake recording and excavation of the site. A private collection of artifacts belonging to Mr. Granado was also studied. Previous Archaeological Research Over the years, there have been numerous uncontrolled excavations in the various caves and sinkholes of the Rustler Hills. Even the excavations conducted by archaeologists are somewhat confusing. Not only is the sequence of excavation unclear, but often a single site has been excavated more than once and has been given varying names by different archaeologists. Important sites near Granado Cave include: the Caldwell Shelters (41CU1 and 41CU2); the McAlpin Caves (41CU5 and 41CU6); Brooks Cave (41CU7); and ELCOR Cave (no assigned site number).recording and excavation of the site Example of a text document

Full text document can be indexed or marked up In 1976, Mr. Frank Granado, a surveyor from Pecos, discovered prehistoric burials in a previously unknown cave in the Rustler Hills. 5

6 Textual vs. Non-textual Non-textual, e.g., images: Only the captions, file names can be searched, not the image itself. Need transcribing or interpreting. Need more detailed metadata to describe its contents. Need knowledge to give a deeper interpretation. Newspaper dated July 16, 1976, reporting the initial discovery of burials in Granado Cave. PE a1.gif

7 Title Creator Source Publisher Language Date Format Subject topic/things/placeT ype/person Coverage year/place Description Newspaper dated July 16, 1976, reporting the initial discovery of burials in Granado Cave. PE a1.gif Need transcribing or interpreting. Need more detailed metadata to describe its contents. Need knowledge to give a deeper interpretation.

8 b) Document-like vs. non-document-like objects Non-document objects often contain multiple components carry information about history, culture, and society have detail about style, pattern, material, color, technique, etc.

c) Original vs. digital surrogates of the works What kinds of objects will be included in the digital collection? What kinds of objects will need to be described? What records are to be managed? born-digitals vs. digital doubles original works vs. digital surrogates of the works 9

10 Designed by Frank L Wright during Documented by Henry Fuermann in 1910 A slide made in 1985 & scanned in 1997

11 A digital collection needs to decide what is the entity of their collection: works, images, or both? How many metadata records are needed for each item? Some part of the data can be reused. E.g., one work has different images or different formats

12 D) Collection-level vs. item-level Collection level Item level Example: Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" Photographs in the Farm Security Administration Collection m.html

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IST681 Metadata Finding Aids example Go to and explorehttp://

2. Principles to be followed Simplicity Extensibility Interoperability –Your data can be integrated into a larger project. –Your data structure allows others to join you. 15

16 3. Other considerations High quality original data –Ensure best quality –One-time project vs. ongoing projects – considering long life. Few revision chances in the future. Metadata reuse –Existing MARC or EAD records can be reused. Homogeneous collection and creation of metadata records –Automatic extraction made possible –Relatively stable quality IST681 Metadata

3. Other considerations (cont.) Considering metadata in a larger project setting Organization-wide collaborative effort –Library –Special collections –Archives –Academic departments, business departments State-wide collaborative projects –e.g., Ohio Memory Nation-wide projects –e.g., American Memory 17

IST681 Metadata Other considerations (cont.) Similar projects in the same domain Similar or related disciplines –e.g., architecture projects, art projects Similar or related media –e.g., multimedia databases, image galleries, visual resources repositories, manuscript collections, company procedure documents …

4. Working with an Existing Element Set 19 Source schema CDWA New schema ObjectID Adaptation, modification, expansion, partial adaptation, translation, etc. a) Deriving a new element set from an existing one New schema depends on the source schema

20 MARC MODS MARC XML b) Change of encoding format, retain original elements c) Shorter versiond) Translated version MARC MODS MARC XML MARCLite DC DC labels in Various languages MARC MODS MARC XML

21 Dublin Core thesis.degree (name,level,discipline,grantor) e) Expansion f) Creating application profiles -- (to be discussed later) ETD-MS

Matching Situations and Possible Actions 22