dewey cataloging system cal collins and shai sachs isovera consulting dec. 2006

Dewey Cataloging System

Cal Collins and Shai Sachs

Isovera Consulting

Dec. 2006

Internet consulting for non-profits2

Overview• Dewey is the nickname for the BEN Collaborative Cataloging Tool.

It refers to the Dewey decimal system, not the character from Duck Tales.

• Dewey is a web-based software package which provides general-purpose cataloging capabilities.

• Dewey is accessed via a web page, and is installed on a web server, usually in a remote location. Multiple users can work on the metadata collection concurrently and collaboratively.


What Dewey Can Do For You

• Dewey is designed to facilitate streamlined metadata harvesting between BEN Collaborators and the BEN Portal. It is designed to ensure that metadata created by the collaborators conforms to the specifications of the BEN Metadata White Paper.

• At the same time, Dewey provides collaborators with the flexibility to extend the specifications to meet their own custom needs.

• Dewey is designed to keep your metadata structure, controlled vocabularies, and metadata records consistent at all times. However, this means the system may not always be as flexible as you want it to be.


Features

• Major areas of functionality are:– Metadata structure management

– Controlled vocabulary management

– Input process management

– Cataloging

– Quality control and metadata validation

– User profile management

– Harvesting (in progress, expected completion date Jan. 2007)

• Features which are not included:– Peer Review

– Browse

– Search


Technical Components

• Minimum requirements:– MySQL 4.0– PHP 4.0– Apache 1.3– Works on Windows and Unix servers

• Designed within the Cake PHP framework.– Cake PHP is a PHP port of the Rails model-view-control-action

architecture.– Cake PHP supports plug-ins which extend the core system’s

functionality. Future enhancements will be delivered as plug-ins.


Current Status

• Available for download from the BEN Project Site:http://www.biosciednet.org/project_site/dewey/dewey.tar.gzhttp://www.biosciednet.org/project_site/dewey/dewey.zip

• Demo is currently running on the BEN server:http://www.biosciednet.org/dewey/

• History:– January 2006: Requirements gathering commenced– February 2006: First draft of software requirement specification completed. Feedback

accepted from BEN collaborators.– March 2006: Software requirement specification completed– April 2006: Development commenced– May 2006: Pilot demonstration at ASM CUE conference– June 2006: Beta release and testing period– August 2006: Production release to the BEN server

• Dewey will be released under an open source license, but the details are still pending.


User Roles

• Collection Administrator – Has all privileges within the system. Sets the role of other users.

• Collection Manager – has all privileges within the system, except for privileges related to user management.

• Validator – has the ability to submit and validate metadata.

• Cataloger – has the ability to create metadata.

• Browser – Has no permissions except capability to login. Could be used to facilitate browse and search functionality in the future.


Metadata Management

• The structure is separated into categories. Each category has multiple “fields”.

• Fields have the following properties:– Name

– Short name

– Required (yes/no)

– Multiplicity (single/multiple)

– Data type (classification, contributor, date, file/url, real number, integer, metadata record, relationship, string, controlled vocabulary term)

– Controlled vocabulary


Metadata Management, Contd

• The categories pre-installed with the system are General, LifeCycle, Educational, Technical, Rights, Relationships and Classifications. The BEN LOM fields are included within these classifications.

• The standard BEN LOM fields are not editable.

• Custom fields may be added to the standard vocabulary. Users will be able to add metadata to these fields, but they will not be harvested by the BEN Portal.

• Once metadata has been entered for a custom field, it may not be deleted and its data type, short name, and controlled vocabulary may not be changed.


Controlled Vocabularies

• A controlled vocabulary is a list of terms arranged in hierarchical fashion.

• Each term has a name and an identifier, as well as a place in the vocabulary.– “English” and “eng” in 3-letter ISO language code list

– “United States” and “US” in 2-letter ISO country code list

• Identifiers my contain numbers, letters, and dots (“.”), e.g. “1.2”, “US”, etc.

• Each term’s identifier is unique within that controlled vocabulary.


Controlled Vocabularies, Part 2

• In Dewey, the terms in a controlled vocabulary are entered via a simple text box. The hierarchy within the vocabulary is indicated by dashes.

Biology

- Ecology

-- Water pollution

-- Air pollution

- Biochemistry

- Molecular Biology


Controlled Vocabularies, Part 3

• Identifiers may optionally be specified in parentheses.

(bio) Biology- (eco) Ecology-- (eco.water) Water pollution-- (eco.air) Air pollution- (biochemistry) Biochemistry- (molbio) Molecular Biology

• If a term’s identifier is not specified, the system will assign it one. Identifiers are assigned in numerical order (1, 1.1, 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 2, …)

• Once a term has been saved to a metadata record, its identifier may not be removed from the controlled vocabulary, and the controlled vocabulary may not be removed from the system.


Mapping Controlled Vocabularies

• In Dewey, it is possible to create a controlled vocabulary which is “mapped” on to another controlled vocabulary.

9th grade High school lower division 9-10

10th grade High school lower division 9-10

11th grade High school upper division 11-12

12th grade High school upper division 11-12

• If controlled vocabulary “A” is to be mapped on to controlled vocabulary “B”, then all of the terms from A must be mapped to at least one of the terms from B.


Mapping Controlled Vocabularies, Contd

• Mappings allow you to speak in one language within your collection (9th grade, 10th grade, …) while sending the proper terms to the BEN Portal (High school lower division 9-10, …)

• If a field within the metadata structure requires a certain vocabulary, then metadata for that field may be entered using any vocabulary which maps to that field.

• When sending metadata to the BEN Portal, the metadata harvester will automatically send the appropriate term from the standard BEN vocabulary (i.e. “High school lower division 9-10” rather than “9th grade”).


Input Process Management

• Input processes are forms which consist of one or more pages and which contain HTML inputs which correspond to fields in the metadata structure.

• Design of input processes is carefully constrained so that metadata produced by a user who completes an input process form conforms to the metadata structure.

• While Dewey supports only one metadata structure, it supports as many input processes as you need. This feature allows you to target input processes at different user audiences, in order to provide input processes optimized to different sub-sets of your collection.


Input Process Management, Part 2

• Inputs in the input process have the following properties– Metadata field– Prompt (appears to the left of the HTML input)– Brief help text (appears below the prompt)– Extended help text (opens in a new window)– Input type (depends on the metadata field; includes single-line text,

multi-line text, drop down list)– Method

• Visible – Users may enter input into the field.• Visible but fixed – The value of the input field is fixed as the default

value. Users may see the value of the input field.• Not visible and not fixed - The value of the input field is fixed as the

default value. Users may not see the value of the input field.– Default value– Controlled vocabulary



• The input process must have one input field for each required metadata field.

• The input type of the input field must conform to the input type of the metadata field.

• The controlled vocabulary of the input field must be the same as the controlled vocabulary of the input field, or it must be mapped onto that vocabulary.

• If the metadata field is required and the method is “Visible but fixed” or “Not visible and not fixed”, the default value for the field is required.



• The input process may have as many pages as you like, and those pages may be rearranged in any order.

• The input fields may be arranged in any order.

• The brief and extended help boxes may contain HTML code in order to point the user to external links, or to include images, tables, and other illustrative guides. These help texts may be used to describe your collection’s metadata policy.

• If a metadata field has a multiplicity of “multiple”, then users will be able to enter multiple values for the corresponding input field.


A few ways to use input processes

• Create input processes for “beginner” and “advanced” users. For beginners, the input process can have more fields whose default value is preset and the help text can be written to explain more basic concepts.

• Create input processes which are divided by subject matter: e.g. an “Ecology Input Process”, a “Biochemistry Input Process”, and a “Molecular Biology Input Process”. The default value for the discipline field can be set appropriately to save users’ time.

• Create input processes which are divided by resource type: e.g. a “Journal articles” and “Curriculum materials” input process. The former input process can include input fields for an optional citations metadata field, while the latter can include input fields for an optional content classification field.


Quality Control and Metadata Validation

• Collection Manager assigns records to validators for validation.

• Validators review and, if necessary, change the metadata so that it accurately reflects the resource.

• Validators decide whether or not to validate or reject the record.– Validate: the record becomes part of the collection– Reject: the record becomes part of the collection archive, and is not available to

the public– N.B.: Validation is not peer review! Validation is meant to assess the quality of

the metadata which describes the learning object. It is not meant to assess the learning object itself.

• Collection Manager may de-accession a record at any time, thereby permanently removing it from the collection.


Conclusion and Next Steps

• A demo system is up and running

http://www.biosciednet.org/dewey

• The system can be downloaded from

http://www.biosciednet.org/project_site/dewey/dewey.tar.gz

http://www.biosciednet.org/project_site/dewey/dewey.zip

• A harvesting plug-in will be available in early 2007.

• The peer review framework will be developed as a plug-in and is scheduled for release in July 2007.


References

• Dewey Software Requirement Specification – http://www.biosciednet.org/project_site/docs/Collections%20Tool%20SRS%20Second%20Release.pdf

• NSDL Metadata Policy for Collections – http://policy.comm.nsdlib.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Policy_Drafts_MS-1

• BEN Metadata White Paper – http://www.biosciednet.org/docs/BEN_Metadata_White_Paper_V5.pdf

• IEEE Learning Objects Metadata Specification – http://ltsc.ieee.org/wg12/files/LOM_1484_12_1_v1_Final_Draft.pdf

• Dublin Core – http://www.dublincore.org/

• LOM / Dublin Core Crosswalk – http://www.ischool.washington.edu/sasutton/IEEE1484.html

http://policy.comm.nsdlib.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Policy_Drafts_MS-1

http://www.biosciednet.org/docs/BEN_Metadata_White_Paper_V5.pdf

http://ltsc.ieee.org/wg12/files/LOM_1484_12_1_v1_Final_Draft.pdf

http://www.dublincore.org/

http://www.ischool.washington.edu/sasutton/IEEE1484.html

dewey cataloging system cal collins and shai sachs isovera consulting dec. 2006

Documents

metadata collection

streamlined metadata

ben server dewey

ben collaborators

ben metadata white paper

metadata records consistent

ben portal

dewey decimal system