1. Introduction to Metadata for Digital Asset Management
Howard Besser
UCLA School of Education & Information

2. Metadata: A fancy word for something familiar
Cataloging
Indexing
Description …
But also new elements of technical description (file format, compression schemes, file names, …)

3. Metadata for Digital Asset Management-
Importance of Metadata Standards
Types and Uses of Metadata
Discovery Metadata: The Dublin Core
Administrative and Structural Metadata: The Making of America II Project
Longevity Metadata
Identification/Provenance
The 4/99 NISO/DLF Image Metadata Workshop
Various other Metadata

4. What is Metadata
Structured data describing other data used to find or help manage information resources
Aids in interoperability
Titles, dates, captions, cataloging and indexing data, file headers, rights info, provenance, code books, transaction logs, ...
One person’s metadata is another’s data

5. Sorting through the Standards Morass
Data Structures (DC, CDWA, MARC, VRA Core, TEI, EAD, MESL data dict)
Data Interchange (Z39.50)
Data Values/vocabularies (LCSH, AAT, ULAN, TGN)
Data Content/syntax (AACR2)

6. Semantics/Syntax/Structure
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)

7. What is Metadata Types & Uses
lots of different ways of dividing the clusters

8. Uses of Metadata Discovery & Retrieval Identification/Provenance
Rights Management
Viewing
Integrity
Longevity
Content rating

9. Containers and Packages of Metadata Warwick, not MARC
modular
overlapping
extensible
community-based
designed for a networked world to aid commonality btwn communities while still providing full functionality within each community

10. Some different schemes where Metdata is kept
embedded within the object (HTML tags)
in a separate related DB maintained by same organization (OPAC, MOA II)
in a separate DB maintained by a separate organization (Books in Print, ratings systems)
derived on-the-fly from a different scheme (MARC-to-DC)

11. 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)

12. 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

13. Dublin Core (3/95) improve resource discovery
anticipate precision problems of Web Crawler-based searching tools
existing metadata could be “dumbed down”
elements should be simple to understand and use, so that any individual should be able to assign terms him/herself
software might eventually automatically generate very base-level metadata

14. Dublin Core Title Creator Subject Description Publisher Contributors
Date
Type
Format
Identifier
Source
Language
Relation
Coverage
Rights

15. Dublin Core every element is both optional and repeatable
elements are cross-disciplinary
elements are extensible by organized communities
can employ a syntax such as html’s <META> tagset for use by Spiders and Harvesters
May 2000 DLF Metadata Harvesting Project

16. DC Qualifiers
allows one community to express important nuances and qualifications, while still making the basic importance available to communities with simple needs
our community can reflect alternate title, transliterated title, and main title, yet they will all be found under a simple Web search under “title”

17. Discovery Metadata: Recent History
Dublin Core (3/95)
Warwick Framework (4/96)
Image Metadata Workshop (9/96)
Canberra, Helsinki, ... DC (98)
Digital Library Collaboratory (97-)
DC-8, Frankfurt 10/99

18. Dublin Core--further work
Warwick Framework
metadata packages for extensible functions
layed groundwork for RDF
Canberra Qualifiers
refining the semantics of the element set to provide more precise info
SUBELEMENT, SCHEME, LANG
Granularity
no hierarchical relationships w/i a given DC record; only one record per discrete object (collection or item-level), and relationship field plus qualifier links them

19. The Research Process and Functional Categories of Metadata
Discovery
Retrieval
Collation
Analysis
Re-presentation

20. Making of America II- Background of the DLF Project
Administrative Metadata
Structural Metadata

21. MOA2 Goal is Interpoerability
Book example

22. DLF Metadata for Interoperability Testbed: the MOA II Project
R & D
Distributed Repositories
Transportation,
Testbed Project
Best Practices
Structural and administrative metadata

23. Previous Projects/Background
Library Standards Background
UC Berkeley Background
Finding Aids
EAD
SGML
EAD “Digital Archives”

24. MOA II Classes of Objects
Continuous Tone Photos
Photo Albums
Diaries, journals, letterpress books
Ledgers
Correspondence

25. MOA II Metadata Administrative Metadata Structural Metadata
for enhancing resource management
Structural Metadata
for reflecting internal hierarchies and relationships btwn parts
Raw/Seared/Cooked

26. 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

27. 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) 14

28. SGML, XML, HTML TEI for structured humanities text
EAD for Finding Aids

29. Other Types of Metadata-
Longevity
Identification/Provenance
Rights Management

30. 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)

31. Image Metadata Focus on Metadata that may prove helpful for
management
use
preservation
...

32. Image Metadata Break-out Groups: Work Done
Characteristics and Features of Images
Image Production and Reformatting Features
Image Identification and Integrity

33. Other Metadata
Description of depiction/surrogate (What VRA calls its "Surrogate Categories")
Description of original object
Rights and Reproduction Information
Location Information

34. Data Structures: The VRA Core
28 elements specifically for visual resource collections
Work Description Categories-
Visual Document Description Categories-

35. 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/movement
Nationality/culture
Subject
Related work
Relationship type
Notes

36. 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

37. Data Value Metadata (vocabularies)
LCSH
TGM
AAT
ULAN
TGN
VRA Core

38. LCSH
very general

39. 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

40. AAT
120,000 terms
for describing objects, textual materials, images, architecture, and material culture from antiquity to present
large and complex

41. ULAN
name authority

42. Thesaurus of Geographic Names
over 1 million records
hierarchical and global
throughout history
most records include coordinates and descriptive notes

43. Metadata for Digital Commerce
DOI
<indecs>-

44. <Indecs>
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 <indecs> 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

45. Metadata Mapping-
Crosswalks
Resource Description Framework (RDF)

46. Crosswalks mapping btwn differing metadata structures
eliminate the need for monolithic, universally adopted standards
focus on flexibility and interoperatiblity
RDF-based metadata registries

47. Crosswalk Example

48. 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

49. RDF Resources (character strings, names, digital objects)
Property (“is the author of”)
Value
resources+properties=relationships
many different relationships can be reflected

50. XML-encoded RDF
<?xml:namespace ns= prefix="RDF" ?>
<?xml:namespace ns= prefix="DC" ?>
<RDF:RDF>
<DC:Creator>Howard Besser</DC:Creator>
</RDF:Description>
</RDF:RDF>

51. Should you start building with RDF today?
Tools are primitive
Standard still likely to evolve

52. Metadata for Digital Asset Mgmt
Howard Besser
UCLA School of Education & Information
Baca, Murtha (ed). Introduction to Metadata, Los Angeles: Getty Information Institute, 1998