Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 1 Emerging Standards for Complex Works Howard Besser UCLA School of Education & Information

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 2 Emerging Standards for Complex Works _ Background & Context for Standards _ MOA2: Structural & Administrative Metadata _ NISO/DLF: Technical Imaging Standards _ Identification/provenance _ Rich Media _ Longevity

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 3 Key problems we’re facing  Discovery  Longevity  Interoperability

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 4 Traditional Digital Library Model DL user search & presentation

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 5 Ideal Digital Library Model DL user search & presentation

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 6 For Interoperability Digital Libraries Need Standards  Descriptive Metadata for consistent description  Discovery Metadata for finding  Administrative Metadata for viewing and maintaining  Structural Metadata for navigation ... Terms & Conditions Metadata for controlling access...

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 7 Why are Standards and Metadata consensus important?  Managing digital files over time  Longevity  Interoperability  Veracity  Recording in a consistent manner  Will give vendors incentive to create applications that support this

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 8 Collaborative Metadata Projects  Dublin Core  NSF/ERCIM Digital Collaboratory  OCLC CORC Project-  Visual Resources Association (VRA) Core  Encoded Archival Description (EAD)  Computerized Interchange of Museum Information (CIMI)-  Records Export for Art and Cultural Heritage (REACH)

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 9 CORC--Cooperative Online Resource Catalog _ both bib records & webliographies (pathfiinders) _ supports both AACR2/MARC and DC _ began 1/99, scheduled availability 7/00 _ participants – Academic libraries – OCLC networks, special libraries, public libraries, state & national libraries, consortia

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 10 Making of America II-  Background of the DLF Project  Administrative Metadata  Structural Metadata

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 11 MOA2 Goal is Interpoerability  Book example

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 12 DLF Metadata for Interoperability Testbed: the MOA II Project  R & D  Distributed Repositories  Transportation,  Testbed Project  Best Practices  Structural and administrative metadata

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 13 Previous Projects/Background  Library Standards Background  UC Berkeley Background  Finding Aids  EAD  SGML  EAD “Digital Archives”

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 14 MOA II Classes of Objects  Continuous Tone Photos  Photo Albums  Diaries, journals, letterpress books  Ledgers  Correspondence

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 15 MOA II Metadata _ Administrative Metadata – for enhancing resource management _ Structural Metadata – for reflecting internal hierarchies and relationships btwn parts _ Raw/Seared/Cooked

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 16 MOA II Behaviors  Navigation  Display/Print

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 17 MOA II Best practices  Use/Users/Collection:  Benchmarking  Masters vs. Derivatives  Scanning-  Administrative Metadata-  Structural Metadata-

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 18 Scanning Best Practices _ Think about users (and potential users), uses, and type of material/collection _ Scan at the highest quality that does not exceed the likely potential users/uses/material _ Do not let today’s delivery limitations influence your scanning file sizes; understand the difference between digital masters and derivative files used for delivery _ Many documents which appear to be bitonal actually are better represented with greyscale scans _ Include color bar and ruler in the scan _ Use objective measurements to determine scanner settings (do NOT attempt to make the image good on your particular monitor or use image processing to color correct) _ Don’t use lossy compression _ Store in a common (standardized) file format _ Capture as much metadata as is reasonably possiple (including metadata about the scanning process itself)

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 19 Why Scale is important

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 20 Administrative Metadata to uniquely identify a digital resource and manage it over time _ Information about where the various pieces/versions of the object reside _ Information to view the digital object _ Information about the scanning process

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 21 Structural Metadata: that which is relevant to presentation of the digital object to the user _ metadata defining the "object”: a book, a diary, a photo album _ metadata defining the “sub-objects”: pages (physical) or chapters and subheads (intellectual)

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 22 SGML, XML, HTML _ TEI for structured humanities text _ EAD for Finding Aids

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 23 NISO/DLF Image Metadata Workshop Possible Goals  Metadata fields  Rules for Field Contents (authority control)  Core set of necessary fields  Syntax for expressing fields and contents (headers)

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 24 Image Metadata Focus on Metadata that may prove helpful for  management  use  preservation ...

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 25 Image Metadata Break-out Groups: Work Done  Characteristics and Features of Images  Image Production and Reformatting Features  Image Identification and Integrity

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 26 NISO/DLF Image Metadata Workshop (4/99) Image Technical Information : Possible Goals  Metadata fields  Rules for Field Contents (authority control)  Core set of necessary fields  Syntax for expressing fields and contents (headers)

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 27 Image Metadata Focus on Metadata that may prove helpful for  management  use  preservation ...

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 28 Image Metadata Break-out Groups: Work Done-  Characteristics and Features of Images  Image Production and Reformatting Features  Image Identification and Integrity

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 29 Image Metadata Elements for Data Dictionary Data Dictionary Entries _ Element Name _ Definition (short) of the element name _ Is the element required? (Identified as: Mandatory, Mandatory if Applicable, Recommended, Optional) _ How is the value of the element represented? _ Examples _ When is this data collected? _ What is the purpose of this data? _ Who would the identified users be? _ How is the metadata used? _ What other metadata standards reference it?

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 30 Image Metadata Elements for Data Dictionary Characteristics and Features Element List _ Format Issues: _ Resolution Issues: _ Encoding: _ Compression: _ Others:

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 31 Image Metadata Elements for Data Dictionary Image Production Element List (Pertaining to the Image) _ In-image target(s): _ System target(s), associated with the object: _ Responsible agent _ Rationale: _ Hardware: _ Software:

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 32 Image Metadata Elements for Data Dictionary Image Production Element List (Pertaining to the Process) _ Format of the image _ Intrinsic characteristics of the image _ Identification _ Provides a means for defining methodology including documentation and rationale _ Who is involved with the file? _ Who created the image file? _ Who commissioned the creation of the image file (i.e., the chartering entity), as opposed to: Who is the responsible agency? Who is the owner? _ Where _ What _ When: necessary dates including: capture date/time, modification _ Checksum _ Navigational aid _ Encoding tools

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 33 Image Metadata NISO/DLF Image Metadata: In Progress _ Data Dictionary for both “Characteristics & Features” and for “Image Production Elements” due end of 6/00

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 34 Finding Image Origins

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 35 Identification/Provenance (Images)-  The number of variant forms of a work can be enormous  Image Families  A digital image frequently has many layers of parentage  Information about the parentage that can indicate the quality and veracity of the image (Dublin Core "Source" and "Relation")  how to deal with different versions derived from the same scan or different encoding schemes  Vocabulary Standards to express this

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 36 The number of variant forms of a work can be enormous  different views of the same object  different lighting of the same object  different scans of the same photo  different resolutions  different compression schemes  different compression ratios  different file storage formats  different details of the same image ...

Image Families

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 38 Identification/Provenance  how to deal with different versions (browse, hi-res, medium res) derived from the same scan or different encoding schemes (TIFF, PICT, JFIF)  Vocabulary Standards to express this – VRA Surrogate Categories – CIMI's "Image Elements”

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 39 Other Metadata _ Description of depiction/surrogate (What VRA calls its "Surrogate Categories") _ Description of original object _ Rights and Reproduction Information _ Location Information

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 40 Metadata for Digital Commerce  DOI  -

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 41  formal structure for describing and uniquely identifying intellectual property itself, the people and businesses involved in its trading, and the agreements which they make about it (primarily for publishing, music, and visual arts)  will develop high-level specifications for the services that will be required to implement a global IP trading system based on this generic data model  focus is on encoding rights at a high level, not on resource discovery  likely to involve metadata schma registration and directory to allow interoperation of personal identifiers for rightsholders and users  supported by EEC DG-13  First meeting July 1999 

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 42 Problems & Potentials of Rich Media- _ Types of Rich Media _ Technologies and problems _ Opportunities--a scenario _ Metadata _ Indexing

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 43 Some Types of Rich Media _ Moving image materials _ Multimedia _ Interactive programs _ Computer art

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 44 After an uphill battle, tech and Tinseltown find common ground (USA Today, 3/3/00)

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 45 Projected Changes: Prospect of digitized movies already has some mourning loss of film (SF Chronicle, 3/5/00)

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 46 Video Technology to Make the Head Spin (NYT 3/2/00)

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 47 ECI - Hole in Space (both)

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 48 ECI - 84-locations

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 49 ECI - 84-Community Memory

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 50 ECI - 84-MOCA

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 51 ECI - Avatars & Humans

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 52 ECI - Avatar Stage

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 53 Complexity of Rich Media _ Works often have artistic nature (including video games) _ Enormous number of elements can, at times, be very important to preserve (pacing, original artifact, elements used to construct the artifact) _ Too complex to save every one of these aspects for every type of material _ Importance of saving documentation

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 54 Rich Media Technologies _ Streaming media vs. Downloaded files _ Bandwidth and compression _ Need to offload functions onto clients

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 55 The Inter-relation Problem  -Info is increasingly inter-related to other info  -How do we make our own Info persist when it points to and integrates with Info owned by others?  -What is the boundary of a set of information (or even of a digital object)?

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 56 The Translation Problem  Content translated into new delivery devices changes meaning – -A photo vs. a painting – -If Info is produced originally in digital form in one encoded format, will it be the same when translated into another format? – Behaviors

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 57 Problems of Rich Media _ Complexity of formats (storage & compression) _ Synchronicity between media/streams _ Pieces and Boundaries _ Persistent IDs _ Interactivity _ Historical context _ Content _ Recontextualization (Postmodernism)

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 58 Opportunities--a scenario _ Huge stable online DB of rich media (Prelinger Archives) _ Creators create new works that consist mainly of links to and transitions btwn pieces of the rich media DB _ Works are not really assembled until run-time _ Securing IP permission may shift from capital-intensive producer to end-user _ Economics of media production may change drastically

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 59 Structural Metadata for Complex Objects- _ MPEG 4 _ SMIL

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 60 Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) _ For repurposing and reuse in different ways _ Use XML to reference various pieces in different ways _ Supported by Realmedia but not Microsoft or Macromedia

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 61 MPEG 4 _ Object-oriented _ Very low level of granularity (even objects vs backgrounds) _ Scaleable bandwidth use _ Binary Format for Scenes (BIFS) borrows concepts from VRML

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 62 Indexing of Moving Image Materials _ Whole works vs. parts of Works _ MPEG 7 _ Approaches to segmentation & thumbnail representation _ Closed caption indexing _ Audio description indexing _ Semiotics

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 63 Other Types of Metadata- _ Longevity _ Identification/Provenance _ Rights Management

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 64 The Short Life of Digital Info: Digital Longevity Problems-  Disappearing Information  The Viewing Problem  The Scrambling Problem  The Inter-relation Problem  The Custodial Problem  The Translation Problem

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 65 The Viewing Problem  Digital Info requires a whole infrastructure to view it  Each piece of that infrastructure is changing at an incredibly rapid rate  How can we ever hope to deal with all the permutations and combinations

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 66 The Scrambling Problem Dangers from:  Compression to ease storage & delivery  Container Architecture to enhance digital commerce

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 67 The Inter-relation Problem  -Info is increasingly inter-related to other info  -How do we make our own Info persist when it points to and integrates with Info owned by others?  -What is the boundary of a set of information (or even of a digital object)?

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 68 The Custodial Problem  How do we decide what to save?  Who should save it?  How should they save it? – -methods for later access: emulation, migration, etc. – -issues of authenticity and evidence

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 69 The Translation Problem  Content translated into new delivery devices changes meaning – -A photo vs. a painting – -If Info is produced originally in digital form in one encoded format, will it be the same when translated into another format? – Behaviors

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 70 Pieces of the Solution (1/2)  -We need to insist upon clearly readable standardized ways for digital objects to self- identify their formats  -We should discourage scrambling  -We need to better understand information inter-relates to other Info, and what constitutes “boundaries” of Info objects

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 71 Pieces of the Solution (2/2)  -People and organizations wishing to make information persist need guidelines of how to go about doing it  -We need to better understand how translating from one storage or display format to another affects the meaning of a work  -We need to save the “behaviors” of a digital object, not just it’s “contents”

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 72 Metadata can be the first line of defense  Can tell you – where the file is (if you can’t find the file) – where more info about the file is (if you have the file but most other metadata has become separated) – what the file format is – what the compression scheme is – what application program and version is needed for the file

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 73 Groups Working on the Big Longevity Problem  CPA Task Force  CPA Study Group  Getty “Time & Bits” Conference-  Internet Archive  Long Now

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 74 Migration/Refreshing  Impact on evidential value

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 75 Emerging Standards for Complex Works _ Howard Besser _ UCLA School of Education & Information _ _   _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 76 Data Structures: The VRA Core  28 elements specifically for visual resource collections  Work Description Categories-  Visual Document Description Categories- 

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 77 VRA Core: Work Description Categories  Work type  Title  Measurements  Material  Technique  Creator  Role  Date  Repository name  Repository place _ Repository number _ Current site _ Original site _ Style/period/group/movem ent _ Nationality/culture _ Subject _ Related work _ Relationship type _ Notes

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 78 VRA Core: Visual Document Description Categories  Visual document type  Visual document format  Visual document measurements  Visual document date  Visual document owner  Visual document owner number  Visual document view description  Visual document subject  Visual document source

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 79 Thesaurus for Graphic Materials  designed for subject indexing of pictorial materials, particularly large general collections of historical images  for cataloging and retrieval  good for general audiences and broad approaches to the material  TGM-I: Subject Terms & TGM-II: Genre and Physical Characteristic Terms 

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 80 AAT  120,000 terms  for describing objects, textual materials, images, architecture, and material culture from antiquity to present  large and complex 

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 81 ULAN  name authority 

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 82 Thesaurus of Geographic Names  over 1 million records  hierarchical and global  throughout history  most records include coordinates and descriptive notes

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 83 Semantics/Syntax/Structure _ Semantics – meaning, as defined by a community to meet their particular needs (DC) _ Syntax – a systematic arrangement of data elements for machine processing – facilitates the exchange and use of metadata among various applications (HTML, XML, RDF) _ Structure – a formal arrangement of the syntax with the goal of consistent representation of the semantics (rules defining field contents like 1/11/99)

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 84 Metadata Mapping-  Crosswalks  Resource Description Framework (RDF)

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 85 Crosswalks  mapping btwn differing metadata structures  eliminate the need for monolithic, universally adopted standards  focus on flexibility and interoperatiblity  RDF-based metadata registries

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 86 Crosswalk Example

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 87 Resource Description Framework (RDF, spec released 2/99) _ W3C Metadata activity _ designed to move the Web beyond simple links to semantically-rich relationships btwn resources _ metadata application using XML as a common syntax for exchange and processing _ flexible architecture for managing diverse application- specific metadata packets that can be processed by machines _ associates resources, property types, and corresponding values _

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 88 RDF _ Resources (character strings, names, digital objects) _ Property (“is the author of”) _ Value _ resources+properties=relationships _ many different relationships can be reflected

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 89 XML-encoded RDF _ _ Howard Besser _

Besser--CNI/JISC 6/16/00 90