METADATA DESIGN PROJECT Digital Collection Picturesque Churches of Bulgaria

November 2014 Copyright 2014 Marina Georgieva

About the project

• Create a metadata project scenario from scratch • Create an imaginary but yet realistic cultural heritage

organization • Develop a local metadata schema appropriate for the project

scope and collection • Develop several unique metadata elements • Include the following parts in the project:

– Application Scenario Description – Functional Requirements – Metadata Application Profile (MAP) – Sample metadata records adhering to MAP – Replica of drop-down browsing functionality

The project also demonstrates:

• ability to develop Local Authority File for structuring metadata that is inconsistent and cannot adhere to any of the existing controlled vocabularies

• ability to map local metadata elements to standard metadata schemas like DC and MODS

• ability to assign the most appropriate functionalities for the important metadata fields in order to promote easy resource discovery

Project purpose

The project aims to demonstrate understanding of:

• practices for developing a whole metadata project scenario

• principles for achieving consistent and quality metadata

• practices for developing local metadata schema appropriate for particular project/organization

• most popular metadata schema Dublin Core (DC) and Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS)

• the significance of using controlled vocabularies consistently throughout certain metadata fields

• the crosswalks among the various metadata schemas for OIA-PMH data interchange

This part provides background information about the project, the organization and the potential users

• Organizational context Provides information about the organization Gives information about the organization affiliation Defines the purpose of this collection Promotes active contribution of users who are interested in

donating resources Provides information about the selection criteria for inclusion of

new resources

• Digital content Provides information about the resources (digital and analog) Provides details about the types of formats hosted in the collection Discusses how the analog resources are digitized and processed so

that they preserve their best quality Discusses that the collection is exposed to OAI harvesting and

aggregating and it participates in data interchange

• Anticipated users Defining the target audience Defining the secondary audience Suggestions for necessary skills to view the collection

Project realization Part 1: Application Scenario Description

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This part outlines the functional requirements for each of the metadata elements.

This is equally useful in cases when a DAM software (like CONTENTdm) is used and in cases when software engineers develop a special

database for that particular project. In both cases the functionalities of the elements as they are outlined are valuable for buildings easy-to-navigate and user-friendly digital

collection.

• Browsing functionalities Browsing by icons Browsing by drop-down menu Each particular church type should have a thumbnail image with the

architectural design of that particular type of church The thumbnail icons will not be available in the drop-down menu The scope note as provided in AAT, TGM and LCSH need to be presented

• Searching Subject search Keyword search Fielded search

• Faceted navigation Convenient way for further refinement of search results Appears as filtering options on the left navigation bar Provide the total number of the resources hosted in each category

Project realization Part 2: Functional Requirements

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This part of the project is the most important one. Metadata Application Profile (MAP) is the most significant document for

each digital collection. It is the backbone of the collection consistency and valuable quick reference resource for metadata creators.

• Local element Provides the name of the local elements as it appears in the database Local metadata schema is needed when a collection is very unique and

the standard schemas cannot describe the resources properly. Local elements are created after careful analysis of the resource types Local elements aim to describe the resources in a very detailed fashion

• Definition The scope note of the local element Provides more insight about each of the local elements for more clarity

• Obligation Provides information about the occurrence of the values in each

particular metadata field Mandatory Required if available Optional Recommended

• Occurrence If the element can be repeated or not

Project realization Part 3: Application Profile Table

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• Vocabulary encoding scheme Crucial for the metadata consistency in critical fields indexed for

searching/browsing Usage of controlled vocabulary promotes consistency, quality metadata

and easy resource discovery Provides information which local field requires controlled terms and

which vocabulary is used Provides hyperlinks to each of the vocabularies for convenient search of

terms during the metadata creation process Used vocabulary encoding schemes in this project

TGN – Thesaurus for Geographic Names ISO 6709 – Standard for Geographic Coordinates AAT – Art & Architecture Thesaurus TGM – Thesaurus of Graphic Materials LCSH – Library of Congress Subject Headings W3CDTF – W3C Date and Time Format LCNAF – Library of Congress Name Authority File DCMIType – Dublin Core Type Vocabulary IMT – Internet Media Type ISO 639-2 – Standard for Language Codes

A local authority file was also developed to accommodate the church locations represented in their native language. The local authority file structures the Bulgarian geographic locations of the churches

in a consisted and easy-to-find manner

Project realization Part 3: Application Profile Table

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• Mapping to Dublin Core (DC) Important for data interchange Crosswalks from the local metadata elements were created to map

them to the Qualified DC elements Promotes OAI harvesting and aggregating

• Mapping to Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS) Important for data interchange Crosswalks from the local metadata elements were created to map

them to the MODS elements and their attributes

• Input guidelines Provide very specific details and restrictions what is allowed in each

particular metadata field. Important especially for those fields which do not have any

controlled vocabulary values

• Examples Disambiguate any confusions about the metadata input Provide nice fundaments for novice metadata creators Serve as a quick cheat sheet for experienced metadata creators Promote consistency of metadata input

Project realization Part 3: Application Profile Table

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Project realization Part 4: Sample Metadata Records

• 10 Excel metadata records

• Metadata records adhere strictly to MAP

• Each row represents a record

• Each column represents a local metadata field

• High consistency is achieved thanks to the strict observation of the MAP guidelines and its restrictions

• Some of the fields intentionally have repeated values across the records

• This allows replicating the drop-down browsing functionality which was tested in part 5

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Project realization Part 5: Replica of Drop-Down Browsing Functionality

• 4 metadata fields were tested for the drop-down browsing functionality

– Church Type (AAT)

– Church Type (TGM)

– Church Type (LCSH)

– Church Location (TGN)

• Applying the Excel filtering option in each of the fields

• Each of the repeated values in the same metadata fields are grouped together

• This enables users to retrieve only records that have a specific value in a particular metadata field

• This replica is a good example of the significance of consistent and quality metadata entered in the fields indexed for searching/browsing

• Facilitates easy resource discovery

This is the results after applying the Filtering option in the Church Type (TGM) field. The selected value Cave churches—Bulgaria retrieved 3 records out of 10 – all of the retrieved records have this controlled TGM term listed in their metadata field.

The end

• A brief video presentation of this project is available here:

– Part 1 (including Application Scenario Description; Functional Requirements; Metadata Application Profile (MAP))

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIxeOMronGs&feature=youtu.be

– Part 2 (including Sample metadata records adhering to MAP; Replica of drop-down browsing functionality)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsWdMAd3G6s&feature=youtu.be

• The project itself is available in PDF format at the following web address:

http://www.slideshare.net/Marina_Georgieva/metadata-design-project-restricted

• All rights reserved.

Reproduction of any part of the Metadata Design Project and this

slide presentation will be considered as copyright infringement.

Copyright 2014 Marina Georgieva