Metadata practice and direction:a community perspective

Metadata practice and direction: a community perspective Lorcan Dempsey VP Research and Chief Strategist CLIR/DLF. Managing Digital Assets: A Primer for Library and Information Technology Administrators Charleston, SC February 4-6, 2005

Overview Metadata Community Practice Directions

Metadata

Metadata? Schematized … … statements about … … resources

Metadata supports operations on resources …. … and relieves the user of having to have advance knowledge of the characteristics or existence of the resource.
Know what resources are available
Know how to play a resource
Know provenance of a resource
Know what use policy governs a resource
Know how to ingest a resource
Know how to interact with a resource
Know how to compose/decompose resources
…

Metadata? … allows people and machines to work smarter …

In network space metadata will be associated with everything that moves
Multiple types of information Objects
Collections
Services
People
Organizations
Places
Terms
Formats
Rights
… and will support multiple operations
An example: a library portal 

A ‘portal’ turned inside out … Common services Content services Application services Presentation services I need a few references

Common services Content services Application services Presentation services authentication

Common services Content services Application services Presentation services Directory: user profile

Common services Content services Application services Presentation services Query broker

Common services Content services Application services Presentation services Directory: service description

Common services Content services Application services Presentation services Content: results list

I’d like to get this book. Common services Content services Application services Presentation services Request broker

Common services Content services Application services Presentation services Directory: ILL policy

Common services Content services Application services Presentation services Directory: service description

Common services Content services Application services Presentation services Content: circ/ILL system

I need this article too. Common services Content services Application services Presentation services Request broker

Common services Content services Application services Presentation services openURL resolver

Common services Content services Application services Presentation services Directory: local knowledge base

Nearly there … Common services Content services Application services Presentation services Directory: service description

Common services Content services Application services Presentation services Content: article

Directory: ILL policy Common services Content services Application services Presentation services Authentication Directory: user profile Query broker Directory: service description Reference db Request broker Circ/ILL system OpenURL resolver Directory: local knowledge base Article db
Metadata for multiple entities required to support operations.
This picture could be extended in multiple ways.

Community

Community? * * * * Cultural heritage Media industry Web/ Internet Library Instructional technology E-gov Research communities Book industry EAD, MARC AMC, .. MARC, MODS, DC, RSLP, .. Onix, … XML, RDF, OWL, … CSDGM, DDI, NBII, IVOA, … EGMS, AGLS, GILS, … GEM, DC-ED, IEEE-LOM, SCORM, … MPEG, JPEG, …

Community politics
‘ Techeology’
Technology as ideology
Communities coming together in new shared space
Boundary confusion
‘ Mergers and acquisitions’
Political and commercial skin at risk
Different
World views
Requirements
Traditions
Legacies
Experience
Ontology recapitulates ideology

Practice

Simple descriptive metadata!! FRBR INDECS CIDOC … MARC21 DC VRA Core MODS Onix … Cataloging rules Controlled vocabs. … XML ISO2709 … RDF ‘ Element set’ Information model Encoding Values/content Application profile

Interoperability a factor at all these levels .. For example ..
Encoding
Element set
Content/values
Encoding
Element set
Content/values

This gives a context for discussing …
Traditional library practice
Strive for consistency at all three levels in the ISO 2709/MARC/AACR model
Institutionalised in standards, OCLC/RLG/LC, committees, …
Dublin Core
Consistency of element set
A small number of encodings
Content/values subject to separate agreement
OAI
A transport for resources.
No control over the transported resources
So …

The interoperable core and communities of practice? MARC XML MARC 21 ONIX Dublin Core MODS Dublin Core GEM SCORM DC-Ed LOM Godby, Smith and Childress

Different classes of metadata increasingly a part of complex object models
SCORM
METS
MPEG 21
…
Descriptive
Structural
Technical
Administrative
Rights
Preservation
Tracking
Provenance

Directions

Makers and takers in a time of rapid development
Makers
Looking over the horizon
A clean slate
At the center of their world
A moving target
Religious differences
Takers
Focus on here and now
Manage legacy environments
Multiple systems and services and priorities
Want stability
Secular pragmatism

Interoperability is an economic and service issue
Extract maximum value from investment in
Data (metadata and content)
Services
By ensuring that they are
Sharable
Reusable
Recombinable
Remember:
Element set
Encoding
Value spaces

Cost
Pressures:
Manage in a world of resource abundance
Demonstrate value
Issues
Programmatically promote metadata from resources where possible
Assess where intellectual contribution justified
Increasingly complex relationships between resources
Bringing together metadata from different policy regimes
Fragmentation of community agreements and standards activities?

Statements
Trust
Inference
Annotation, review, commentary
So what about the Semantic Web then?

Metadata
Schematized statements about resources
Historically independent communities of interest overlapping in a network space
Practitioners faced with high acronymic density, many choices, and often a moving target
Kaleidoscopic perspective .. May fall into pattern at any minute …

Over to you … Thank you! Lorcan Dempsey [email_address]

The pattern is new … The knowledge imposes a pattern and falsifies For the pattern is new in every moment

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Metadata practice and direction:a community perspective

by Lorcan Dempsey on Mar 13, 2007

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