Metadata and Electronic Publications T.B. Rajashekar National Centre for Science Information Indian Institute of Science Bangalore – 560 012 ([email protected])

Metadata and Electronic Publications

T.B. RajashekarNational Centre for Science

InformationIndian Institute of Science

Bangalore – 560 012([email protected])

Prepared for presentation in the Workshop on 'Electronic Publishing of Scientific Information‘, Organized by the Indian

Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, 13-15 March 2002

T.B. RajashekarNCSI, IISc

14th March 2002

Electronic Publishing - Context

Levels of EP: Desktop publishing (individual workstations.

Ex. Word, PDF, PS) Network publishing

Intranets (Ex. Organization/ Department websites) Internet (Ex. Electronic journals)

E-Journals publishing: Stakeholders Publishers, authors, users, libraries,

subscription agents, aggregators…


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E-Journals Publishing: Some Key Issues

Publisher Content management

(workflow, quality…) Subscription/ payment

management Rights management Bibliographic control

& resource discovery Preservation Linking, sharing,

exchange

User/ Library Resource discovery

(search, identify, locate, access)

Access management Reference linking Resource sharing Seamless access –

bibliographic – fulltext Gateway services Perpetual access


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Metadata is key for:

Content management, Content Organization,Bibliographic Control, Resource discovery,

Rights Management,Access Management, Preservation,

Linking and data exchange


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What is Metadata?

Data about data - Digitalspeak for what librarians have been doing much before the Internet – surrogates, catalogs

A metadata record consists of a set of attributes, or elements, necessary to describe the resource in question

Structured information Describes, explains, locates an information resource Makes it easier to retrieve, use or manage an

information resource


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What Does Metadata Describe?

papers, articles information pages images sound collections user profiles Spatial data

...Digital and physical

manifestations

ContentPublishing

- Internal content- External content- Legacy content

- Content Representation and Organisation

- Content Storage & Processing- Preservation

- Access Management- Usage Monitoring- Delivery- Interoperability

Resource Discovery

Content Organization

Meatadata(Catalog Server)

Content(Object Server)

ContentRepository(Resource

Base)

Content publishing & access workflow

Object Server

Documents

Audio

Video Database

Author: …Title: ….Subject: …Source type: …Format: …….

Author: …Title: ….Subject: …Source type: …Format: …….

Author: …Title: ….Subject: …Source type: …Format: ……. Print sources

META

DATA

Catalog Server


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Types of Metadata

Different types of metadata Descriptive

Purpose: Resource discovery and identification Ex.: Title, abstract, author, URL, keywords, etc.

Administrative & Rights Management Purpose: Help manage a resource Ex.: Who created and when, who can access, etc.

Structural metadata Purpose: Document structure Ex.: Chapter, section, paragraph


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Metadata Example: E-Journal Gateway Service

Context: Library in an academic intranet

Issue: How do we manage access to large number of e-journals and provide convenient

access?

An example gateway service for e-journals





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Metadata Example: E-Print archive software

Context: Content management in an academic intranet

Issue: How do we enforce metadata standard across an organization?

Content Publishing

Catalog Server

ObjectServer

Resource Discovery

Metadata Content (Digital source)

Distributed contentpublishing

Distributed resourcediscovery

EDIS Architecture: Distributed Publishing

E-publishing in an intranet

Content management – E-Print Archives







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Metadata Example: XML-based metadata (IOP Publishing)


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Handling of Metadata

Metadata can be used for describing resources at different aggregation levels Collection, specific resource, component of

a resource, etc. Embedded in a digital object

Ex. HTML documents, headers of images Stored separately (in a database

system) Simplifies management of metadata Facilitates search and retrieval


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Uses of Metadata

Resource discovery Finding, searching and identifying resources Field-based browse/ search

Organizing electronic resources Ex.: Internet resource catalogues (web resource

directories), Institutional publication archives, intranet content management

Interoperability Exchange of data between systems – metadata

standards facilitate cross-searching and sharing (metadata harvesting – OAI protocol)


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Uses of Metadata

Digital identification, Bibliographic control Uniquely describe, identify & locate the

digital object referred by the metadata PURL, DOI (CrossRef), OpenURL

Archiving and preservation Data elements to track the lineage, physical

characteristics, etc. Efforts are on to define metadata schemes for

digital preservation (e.g. ISO’s Open Archival Information System OAIS)


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Metadata Schemes

Set of metadata elements, with associated semantics and syntax for describing a particular type of resources

Components (semantics, syntax, content): Metadata elements and their meaning/

definition Content rules – how content must be identified

and formulated Representation rules – how content must be

represented Content: Values given to metadata elements


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Examples of Metadata Schemes

Dublin Core (www.dublincore.org) Network information resources Widely adopted

Government Information Locator Service (GILS) (www. dtic.mil/gils/) Govt. resources

TEI Header (www.tei-c.org) Electronic texts like novels, poetry, plays,

etc.


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The Encoded Archival Description (EAD) (www.oc.gov/ead/)

Archives and special collections The Visual Resources Association (VRA) Core

Categories Describe visual materials such as buildings,

photographs, paintings, etc. ONIX International Online Information

Exchange) XML-based metadata for communication of book

trade information – being expanded to cover journals, conferences, etc.


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IMS Metadata (www.imsproject.org/metadata/) Specs and software for managing online

learning resources – resource discovery, IPR, commerce

http://www.imsproject.org/metadata/


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Metadata for datasets Numerical and statistical data Content Standard for Digital Geophysical

Metadata (CSDGM) (www.fgdc.gov/metadata/contstan.htm)

Topographic, demographic, GIS and computer-aided cartographic files

Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) standard (www.icpsr.umich.edu/DDI/codebook.html)

Social science data sets XML DTD

http://www.fgdc.gov/metadata/contstan.htm


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ScientificData

HomePages GeoLibrary

Museums

Commerce

Whatever...

Communities

Resource Description Communities


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Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI)

International standard for describing network digital resources

Consists of 15 elements, each repeatable, none mandatory

Conceived in 1994 Has reached standard status – W3C, NISO, ISO Widely used in several projects around the

world Being refined further


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The Dublin CoreMetadata Element Set

Title Author/Creator Subject /Keywords Description Publisher Other Contributor Date

Resource Type Format Resource Identifier Source Language Relation Coverage Rights

Management


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Key Features of DC

Simplicity of creation and maintenance Small and simple element set Non-specialists can create metadata records Enable effective search and retrieval

Commonly understood semantics Generic, common element set facilitates cross-domain

accessibility (e.g. “creator” - document, music)

International scope DC element set in several languages

Extensibility Linkages with other metadata sets


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Uses of DC

Used mainly for describing document-like objects – metadata standards for other domains exist (e.g. e-commerce, education)

DC record can be embedded in the resource itself (e.g. “Meta” tag of HTML)

DC elements may be contained in a record separate from the resource

Database of DC element records, each describing a separate electronic resource (e.g. subject gateways)

DC in HTML <html><head> <title>UKOLN Home Page</title> <meta name="DC.Title” content="UKOLN: UK Office for Library

and Information Networking"> <meta name="DC.Subject" content="national centre, network

information support, library community, awareness, research, information services, public library networking, bibliographic management, distributed library systems, metadata, resource discovery, conferences, lectures, workshops">

<meta name="DC.Description" content="UKOLN is a national centre for support in network information management in the library and information communities. It provides awareness, research and information services">

<meta name="DC.Creator" content=”UKOLN Information Services Group">

</head> ...


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Metadata Example: Use of DC in an intranet

information portal


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DC Projects

Implemented in over 100 projects in several countries

Government Information Australian Government Locator Service Danish Online Government Information Finnish Online Government Information

Libraries and DLs (e.g. CORC – Cooperative Online Resource Catalogue, of OCLC)

Intranets – Nokia, Boeing, Ford, Weyerhaeuser


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DC Projects…

Science and Mathematics Environment Australia, Swedish EnviroNet,

German Mathematical Society Preprint Project…

Education EDNA (Educational Network of Australia) GEM (Gateway to Educational Materials) German Education Resources Server IMS (Instructional Management System)

DC + discipline-specific elements


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DC Projects…

Humanities AHDS Arts and Humanities Data Service CIMI Metadata Testbed Project SCRAN (Scottish Cultural Resources Access

Network) Publishing/ e-commerce

E-books (www.openebook.org) INDECS (Interoperability of Data in E-

Commerce Systems) (www.indecs.org) - data model for IPR management in publishing, recording industry

http://www.openebook.org/

http://www.indecs.org/


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Metadata Creation

Who creates metadata? Author Technical staff (cataloguers) Combination

Integration into EP workflow Manual/ automated processes and tools Quality control

Develop/ adopt metadata standards – key to successful EP


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Related Resources

Metadata made simpler: A guide for libraries. Gail Hodge. 2001. (www.niso.org)

Dublin Core (dublincore.org) Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (Std.)

(www.niso.org) CrossRef and reference linking

(www.crossref.org) Digital Object Identifier (www.doi.org)

http://www.niso.org/