1. Metadata: SCHEMAS and other European projects Michael Day UKOLN: the UK Office for Library and Information Networking, University of Bath m.day@ukoln.ac.uk First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001

2. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 Presentation overview European metadata developments: –Introduction to metadata –Interoperability –Subject gateways –Resource Discovery Network –Renardus project –Digital preservation SCHEMAS Forum project overview

3. An overview of European metadata developments

4. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 What is metadata? (1) Definitions: –“Data about data” –Structured data about resources that can be used to help support a wide range of operations, e.g. resource description and discovery, information management, digital preservation, etc. –Term can be applied to descriptive data about both digital and non-digital resources –Cross-domain

5. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 What is metadata? (2) Large number of standards and formats in use, e.g.: –ISBD, MARC21, –ISAD(G), EAD, RKMS –CIMI DTD, AMICO –MPEG-7, SMEF –GILS, AGLS, FGDC CSDGM –IMS, IEEE LOM –OAIS –UDDI –Dublin Core, OAI

6. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 Uses of metadata Resource description and discovery –e.g. Dublin Core –Many domain specific initiatives, e.g., for educational content, cultural heritage, Geospatial information, etc. Interoperability Information management –e.g. rights management Long-term preservation

7. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 Interoperability (1) Interoperability is at the heart of the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) Metadata crosswalks: –Library of Congress: –MARC21 to DC crosswalk –Nordic Metadata Project: –DC and Nordic MARC mappings –BIBLINK project (FP4): –BIBLINK Core and UNIMARC mapping http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/interoperability/

8. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 Interoperability (2) Development of broker systems: –UK: –MODELS initiative –Agora project –AHDS catalogue (arts and humanities) –Telematics for Libraries (FP4) projects: –Aquarelle (cultural heritage) –EULER (mathematics) –DECOMATE II (European Digital Library for Economics)

9. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 Subject gateways (1) Definition - based on Koch (2000): –Internet services that support systematic resource discovery –Provide links to resources (usually those accessible via the Internet) –The service is largely based on human-created resource descriptions (metadata) –The services allow both searching and browsing via a subject structure –Serve specific communities - usually subject- based –Services select Internet resources according to some pre-defined quality criteria http://www.lub.lu.se/~traugott/OIR-SBIG.txt

10. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 Subject gateways (2) Early developments: –SOSIG (Social Science Information Gateway) set up in 1994 –UK Electronic Libraries (eLib) Programme –Funded some gateway services: EEVL, OMNI, SOSIG, etc. –Also software and support: ROADS project –Wider European developments: –EELS (Engineering Electronic Library Sweden) –DutchESS (Dutch Electronic Subject Service) –The DESIRE projects (Telematics for Research)

11. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 RDN (1) The Resource Discovery Network: –A UK service –Funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) –Launched in November 1999 http://www.rdn.ac.uk/

12. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 RDN (2) Objectives: –To extend coverage to subject areas not covered by the original eLib gateways –To integrate access to existing gateways –To develop subject based portals for educational communities –To establish new organisational and business models (sustainability)

13. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 RDN structure (1) The Centre (RDNC) Part of JISC’s DNER (Distributed National Distributed Resource) Office Roles: –Promoting and developing the network –Establishing frameworks to ensure quality, consistency, and interoperability across the RDN –Presenting gateways in various views to exploit their interdisciplinary and cross- sectoral value

14. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 RDN Structure (2) “Hubs” –Faculty-level (for higher education) –Some based on eLib subject gateways, others newly established –Made up of one or more gateways –Catalogue resources using a variety of metadata schema –Offer Z39.50 targets for a central cross- searching service –Maximise potential for strategic partnerships and commercial arrangements within subject domains

15. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 RDN Structure (3) The current “Hubs”: –Biome (medical and biological sciences) –PSIgate (physical sciences) –EEVL (engineering, computing and mathematics) –Humbul (arts and humanities) –SOSIG (social sciences) New hubs planned: –creative arts & industries –tourism, leisure & hospitality –environment & geography

16. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 RDN broker (1) RDN provides a central broker service that can access resource descriptions in all gateways –Service currently based on Whois++ cross-search –Moving to a Z39.50 based broker using the Bath Profile http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/bath/ Experiments with new architectures –e.g., based on sharing records through interoperability agreements defined by the Open Archives Initiative (OAI)

17. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 SOSIG Humbul BIOME RDN Broker ‘ResourceFinder’ RDN broker (2)

18. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 RDN interoperability Cataloguing guidelines –mandatory fields, schemes and qualifiers –Draft rules for content based on DCMES –Minimum set includes: Title, Subject, Description, Type, Identifier and Language. –Shared list of types Ambition to provide common subject approach for cross-browsing –co-operation with HILT project and Renardus

19. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 Renardus project (1) General information: Renardus: Academic Subject Gateway Service Europe IST programme (FP5) 12 partners from 7 European countries led by the National Library of the Netherlands (KB) January 2000 - June 2002 http://www.renardus.org/

20. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 Renardus project (2) Objectives: To build upon existing European subject gateway activity: –Services: –e.g., EELS, NOVAgate, DutchESS, SSG-FI gateways, FVL, RDN, etc. –Support: –e.g., DESIRE project, IMesh, etc. Development of pilot broker service Sustainability through collaboration

21. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 Renardus project (3) Main background issues: Architecture for broker service Technical standards and solutions Data model (metadata schema) –WP led by SUB Göttingen –Based on Dublin Core Organisational and business issues –Sustainability, branding, IPR, etc. Metadata sharing

22. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 Renardus broker (1) Development of pilot broker: Cross-search –Based on Z39.50 cross search –Renardus data model Cross-browsing –based on mapping the Dewey Decimal Classification to all subject schemes used by local gateways –Mapping guidelines published (2001) Evaluation

23. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 Renardus broker (2)

24. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 Preservation metadata (1) Metadata is an important part of any digital preservation strategy: –Within a digital repository, “metadata accompanies and makes reference to each digital object and provides associated descriptive, structural, administrative, rights management, and other kinds of information.” (Lynch, 1999) http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september99/09lynch.html General metadata framework: –Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS)

25. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 Preservation metadata (2) OAIS Model - taxonomy: Content Information: –Digital Object –Representation Information Preservation Description Information: –Reference –Context –Provenance –Fixity http://ssdoo.gsfc.nasa.gov/nost/isoas/ref_model.html

26. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 Preservation metadata (3) Library-based initiatives: –Mostly use the OAIS Model –National Library of Australia –NEDLIB project (Telematics for Libraries) –Cedars project (eLib) –RLG/OCLC Working Group on Preservation Metadata Recordkeeping initiatives, e.g.: –Australian Recordkeeping Metadata Schema (RKMS)

27. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 IST projects overview –COLLATE (Collaboratory for Annotation, Indexing and Retrieval of Digitized Historical Archive Material) –COVAX (Contemporary Culture Virtual Archive in XML) –ETB (The European Schools Treasury Browser) –METAe (Metadata Engine) –Renardus: Academic Subject Gateway Service Europe –SCHEMAS: Forum for Metadata Schema implementers

28. The SCHEMAS project Forum for Metadata Schema Implementers

29. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 Partners PricewaterhouseCoopers Technology Consultants (PwC) German National Research Centre for Information Technology (GMD) UK Office for Library and Information Networking, University of Bath (UKOLN)

30. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 Audience Who? Metadata schema designers Projects under the EU’s IST programme (Multimedia Content and Tools) and national initiatives What for? Information, guidance and tools for the description of Web resources of all kinds Helping designers to use what is already there

31. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 Domains Cultural heritage Publishing and rights management Audio-visual production and distribution Education Research Academic services Geospatial information Industry Other (e.g. Government) Not just Dublin Core No ‘best way’ of doing things

32. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 Needs General need for: Standard methods for content description Multiplicity of schemas, mixing and matching general and specific sets But: There is some duplication of effort, competition between standards and schemas Potential confusion for implementers

33. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 Re-use Why re-use existing schemas? Not re-inventing wheels Potential use of standard tools Higher potential interoperability End result: Reduction of cost, now and in the future Enlarging the potential audience Interoperability

34. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 The information gap Metadata schemas already identified: Over 200 implementation activities Around 90 standardisation activities Very different levels of information Conclusions: Good information about schemas is badly needed Need for mutual understanding, hopefully leading to harmonisation

35. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 SCHEMAS provides... Information provision Metadata Watch Reports Standards Framework Reports Workshops Implementation of a SCHEMAS Forum Registry: Schemas, application profiles, people, projects, standards, tools, guidelines

36. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 SCHEMAS results Workshops (3): –Bath, UK, June 2000 –Bonn, Germany, November 2000 –Budapest, Hungary, May 2001 –[The Hague, Netherlands] http://www.schemas-forum.org/workshops/ Metadata Watch Reports (3): http://www.schemas-forum.org/metadata-watch/ Standards Framework Reports (1): http://www.schemas-forum.org/stds-framework/

37. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 SCHEMAS Registry Experience with prototype metadata registry developed by DESIRE II project The registry is the place to publish metadata schemas: –‘namespace schemas’ –‘application profile schemas’ As well as other information about schemas, e.g.: –standards, projects, people, tools, etc.

38. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 Thick registry Thick Registry Namespace schema App profile Sample data Mapping Usage guide Software tools Users

39. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 Thin registry Thin Registry Namespace schema App profile Sample data Mapping Usage guide Software toolsUsers

40. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 Registry approach The SCHEMAS registry is: initially, a ‘thick registry’ with schemas registered at a central location it will be able to develop into a ‘thin registry’ in the future, with pointers to distributed schemas on the Web The technical basis is: RDF Schemas EOR toolkit

41. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 EOR Toolkit

42. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 Registry functions Registration schemas from European projects and initiatives information and reviews from SCHEMAS domain correspondents (Metadata Watch) Searching Finding application profiles for re-use Finding related information and guidance

43. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 Application profiles What is an application profile? –a schema identifying the use of elements from one or more namespaces in a particular application, with additional constraints What is it used for? –To publish this information for a human audience –To help software configure http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue25/app-profiles/

44. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 SCHEMAS Contacts Makx Dekkers mail@makxdekkers.com Rachel Heery r.m.heery@ukoln.ac.uk Tom Baker thomas.baker@gmd.de Web site: http://www.schemas-forum.org/

45. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 SCHEMAS Web site

46. First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, 18 May 2001 UKOLN UKOLN is funded by Resource: the Council for Museums, Archives & Libraries (the organisation that succeeded the Library and Information Commission), 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. http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/