Dublin Core Metadata Schema Registry at Tsukuba

Shigeo Sugimoto, Mitsuharu NagamoriGraduate School of Library, Information and Media Studies

University of TsukubaTsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

{sugimoto, nagamori} 　 @ 　 slis.tsukuba.ac.jp

Agenda/Outline

• Demonstration

• History of DCMI Registry Development

• DCMI Registry at Tsukuba

• Experimental Studies at Tsukuba

DCMI Metadata Schema Registry

• Provides collection of DCMI terms– DCMI Terms: http://

dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-terms/

• Demonstration– OCLC: http://dublincore.org/registry/– Tsukuba: http://juror.slis.tsukuba.ac.jp/dcregistry

/

History

• Project started at AIT, Thailand under supervision of Thomas Baker in 1998

• Mitsuharu Nagamori and Shigeo Sugimoto participated in the project from its early phase for the interface in multiple languages

• DCMI Registry WG since 1999– WG home: http://dublincore.org/groups/registry/– Current Version: http://dublincore.org/dcregistry/– The DCMI registry provides definitions of DCMI Term

s

Registry Chronology

1998

Xu Bo and Tom Baker (AIT, Thailand)

“DC in Multiple Languages”

Xu Bo and Tom Baker (AIT, Thailand)

“DC in Multiple Languages”

1999 2000～ 2002 2003

1st Registry Prototype was developed (August)

1st Registry Prototype was developed (August)

Internationalization and Research Requirements

Internationalization and Research Requirements

1st DCMI Registry released (phase 1)

1st DCMI Registry released (phase 1)

2004

Implemented Web Service Interface

(phase 2)

Implemented Web Service Interface

(phase 2)

Registry WG established (December)

Registry WG established (December)

Some Basic Issues in the DCMI Registry- Multi-lingual Issues -

• Translation of the DCMI terms was recognized as an important issue for DCMI from very early stage of the development of DCMI terms.

• Translations of DCMI terms have been done by volunteers– A few national standards– A few official local affiliates

• Multi-linguality issues in the DCMI Registry– Browse– Search– Translation Support

Some Basic Issues in the DCMI Registry- Underlying Model -

• DCMI Schema Registry stores the DCMI terms– Elements– Refined Elements– Encoding Schemes– DCMI Type Vocabulary terms

• The data model for the terms is based on RDF Schema

Some Basic Issues in the DCMI Registry- Underlying Model -

• DCMI Abstract Model– http://dublincore.org/documents/abstract-model/– A Reference Model of DC Metadata– Independent of any particular encoding syntax

• Two parts of the abstract model– DCMI Resource Model– DCMI Description Model

• The abstract model helps users understand the underlying model for the DCMI terms

Some Statistics of the Registry

• DCMI Schemas– Dublin Core Element Set– Dublin Core Qualifiers– DCMI Type Vocabulary

• Translations– Over 25 languages

• Open Source Software

Some Statistics of the Registry

• Main Registry and Collaborating Registries– Main Registry at OCLC, Dublin, Ohio, USA– Collaborating Registries at Goettingen, Tsukuba

• Registries– OCLC: http://dublincore.org/registry/– Tsukuba: http://juror.slis.tsukuba.ac.jp/dcregistry/ – Goettingen (Univ. Goettingen): http://dbclear.sub.uni-

goettingen.de/dcregistry/index.html– Beijing (Library of Chinese Academy of Sciences):

http://159.226.100.140:8080/dcregistry/

Browse the Registry By Classification typeBrowse the Registry By Classification type

• Elements• Element Refinements• Controlled Vocabulary Terms• Vocabulary and Encoding Schemes• Summary of All Terms

• Elements• Element Refinements• Controlled Vocabulary Terms• Vocabulary and Encoding Schemes• Summary of All Terms

Detailed view of the termDetailed view of the term

Search the Registry for TermsSearch the Registry for Terms

Multiple LanguagesMultiple Languages

Resource AdministrationResource Administration

Registry Model

DCMIRegistry

VocabularyManagement

Tool

Web Services

Applications

Metadata Schema (RDF)

DCMI Usage Board

People seeking information about termsFeedback

I18N Issue: Early Efforts

• Many volunteers create translations, but...

• Difficulties with the range of file formats and character encodings

Volunteers

Translation

HTML, Plain Text,MS Word, etc…

Convert toUTF-8 Registry

Format toRDF

EUC-JP, TIS-630, GB2312, etc…

Administrators

Translation Tool• A simple support tool for volunteer

translators

Volunteers

Registry

TranslationTool

Make translations through Web-based user interfaces.

TranslationDB (RDF)

Administrators

List of TermsList of Terms

Target LanguageTarget Language

Translation Tool

Metadata Schema Registry at Tsukuba

• Basic function + extended features• Basic function: DCMI Terms

– Basic functions

• Extension of Schema Collection to non-DC Schemas– metadata schemas collected on the Web and

some other resources– Experiments for cross-schema applications

• Extension to Application Profiles

Extending Schema Collection

• Extended the Registry DB to non-DCMI terms collected on the Web and other resources

• Student Monitors for the Tsukuba registry

• Functional extensions– A list of schemas in the ‘Browse’ page, and– A list of defined elements and classes that

relate to each schema.

拡張機能１• スキーマ一覧表示の画面

Added a List of Schemas in the ‘Browse’ pageAdded a List of Schemas in the ‘Browse’ page

Added a List of Related TermsAdded a List of Related Terms

Lessons Learned

• Need to add relationships between term and schema, or term and term– isDefinedBy, subPropertyOf, dc:type, etc…

• Improve user interfaces displaying terms – Graphical ？

• Support various RDF formats– OWL, FOAF, SKOS, Application Profiles, etc…

• Vocabulary to specify types of schemas

Add Relationships

Schema X

Term A Term B

rdfs:isDefinedBy

Date

DC 1.1

rdfs:isDefinedBy

rdfs:subPropertyOf

Improvement of User Interfaces

• Better UI for the schema collection – 50+ schemas and 2500+ terms– Difficulty to display all of the schemas and the

terms in a table– Need Graphical UI (e.g., IsaViz)

• Need more feedback from users.

×

Support various RDF formats

• Many schemas use OWL, FOAF, SKOS, etc…

<rdf:Description rdf:about=“http://www.slis…./”> <dc:title>Tsukuba Registry</dc:title> <dc:creator>

<foaf:Person> <foaf:name>Mitsuharu</foaf:name> <foaf:mbox>nagamori@slis…</foaf:mbox></foaf:Person>

</dc:creator></rdf:Description>

○

Vocabulary to classify and describe schemas

• Need a good scheme to browse and search metadata schemas– Classification of schemas and terms

• A vocabulary to specify the types of schemas is required– e.g., “element set”, “subject classification

vocabulary”, “type classification vocabulary”, “application profile”, etc.

Application Profiles

• An application profile is a schema defined for a specific application domain based on one or more element sets– DC Library Application Profile uses DCMI

terms and MODS terms– Simple Dublin Core is an application profile

Application Profile

termA: Mandatory

termC: Optional

Repeatable

termX: Mandatory

Repeatable

termZ: Mandatory

if applicable

termX termY termZ

Metadata Vocabulary 2(Metadata Element Set)

Metadata Vocabulary 1(Metadata Element Set)

termA termB termC

A structural view of application profile

Abstract Syntax and Concrete Syntax

termA: Mandatory

termC: Optional

Repeatable

termX: Mandatory

Repeatable

termZ: Mandatory

if applicable

Application Profile: Terms used in an application and structural constraints

termX termY termZ

Metadata Vocabulary 2(Metadata Element Set)

Metadata Vocabulary 1(Metadata Element Set)

termA termB termC

<rdf:Description about=”foo”> <mv1:A>an example.</mv1:A> <mv2:X>bar</mv2:X> ...

<meta name=”mv1:A” content=”an example”><meta name=”mv2:X” content=”bar”>

...

Description in a syntax defined in an application

Application Profile

A Layered Modelsplit semantics and syntax into layers

Layered Model of Metadata Schema

Layer 1Semantics

Layer 2Abstract Syntax

Layer 3Concrete Syntax

DCMES (Elements and

Qualifiers)IEEE-LOM ULIS element

extension

DCMI Library Application

Profile

Open Archives Initiative Schema

IPL Asia Schema

ULIS Core Schema

XML implementation

in an XML Schema

An Oracle implementation

RDF implementation

Layered Modeland Metadata Schema Registry

Layer 1

Layer 2

Layer 3

DCMI Registry

DCMES Terms

(Elements and Qualifiers)

ULIS element extension

ULIS-DL Subject

Vocabulary

Tsukuba Registry

Application Profile A Application Profile B

Layered Modeland Metadata Schema Registry

Layer 1

Layer 2

Layer 3

DCMI Registry

DCMES Terms

(Elements and Qualifiers)

ULIS element extension

ULIS-DL Subject

Vocabulary

Tsukuba Registry

XML Schema for A XML Schema for B

Some Projects at Tsukuba: Registry-based Software Tools

• Metadata Schema Driven Software Tool Generator– A software generator which produces simple software

tools, eg. editors, search interfaces.

• Metadata Schema Search – an Application Profile oriented tool– An on-going project based on the experimental extens

ion of the DCMI registry– Help metadata schema designers find metadata sche

mas - element sets, terms and application profiles

Software Tool Generator

Software Tool Generator

MetadataSchema Registry

Metadata

Software for X:e.g. Editor

Metadata

Software for X:e.g. Editor

Metadata

Software for Y:e.g. Search Tool

Metadata

Software for Y:e.g. Search Tool

Profile XProfile X

Profile YProfile Y

Each metadata software is derived from its application profile.

Software Tool Generator: An Implementation

Metadata Driven Software

ApplicationProfile

Software Tool Generator

MetadataSchema Registry

Metadata Database

Primitive Functions

User Interfaces (XML texts created from A/P)

Application Profile Description Example<grammer> <start><ref name="Metadata"/></start> <define name="Metadata">

<element name="Bibliography information" dc:LanguageSchema="ja-JP"> <element name="title" occurrence="1">

<dc:source rdf:resource="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/title"/> <data type="shortString"><param name="required"/></data> <dc:label priority="registry">Title</dc:label></element><element name="keyword" occurrence="1"> <dc:source rdf:resource="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/subject"/> <data type="shortString“ /> <dc:label priority="registry"> キーワード </dc:label></element><element name="description" occurrence="1"> <dc:source rdf:resource="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/description"/> <data type="longString“ /> <dc:label priority="registry"> 概要 </dc:label></element>

…(snip)…</grammer>

Generated Metadata Software• According to the specified Application Profile• Customizable by XSLT + CSS

Conclusion• Metadata schema registry is an important tool to

enhance interoperability and re-usability of metadata schemas.– Canonical descriptions in human and machine

understandable forms– Internationalization– Cross-domain applications

• “Terms” are the central component for the metadata schema registry. However, “Application Profiles” are also crucial to enhance interoperability and re-usability of metadata and metadata schemas.

Thank you!