oha 2008 - making sense of metadata: a practical overview for oral historians
DESCRIPTION
Densho\'s Director of Information and Technology Geoff Froh presents a broad overview of metadata concepts and their application to oral history projects through the experiences of the Densho project. (Delivered 10/18/2007 at the Oral History Association Annual Meeting, Pittsburg, PA)TRANSCRIPT
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The Japanese AmericanLegacy Project
Preserving the past, inspiring the future
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Making Sense of Metadata:A Practical Overview for Oral Historians
Geoff Froh, DenshoOHA PittsburghOctober 18, 2008
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Today…
• Metadata Basics• Metadata Standards for Oral
History• Metadata in Oral History Practice
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Metadata Basics
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What Is Metadata?
• “Data about data”
• “Structured information that describes the attributes of an information package for the purpose of identification, discovery and management” (Taylor 2004)
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A Simple Example
TitleAuthorPublisherDate
FormatBitrate
SubjectSizeOwner
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What Are the Types of Metadata?
• Descriptive– What is it? What is it called? What is it
about?
• Administrative– What format is it? When was it created?
Who owns it?
• Structural– What are the parts? How are they
related?
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What Is a Schema?
• A definition of the structure and semantics– Elements/attributes– Documentation of intended meaning
• Provide rules for the values– Syntax– Controlled vocabularies
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How Is Metadata Recorded?
• Together with the resource– Embedded in the file format– Wrapped into a single file
• Separate from the resource– Database– Structured flat-file (XML)
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What Is XML?
• Text-based format for data exchange• Data definition bundled with the data
<Book> <Title>Listening Is An Act of Love</Title> <Author>Isay, David</Author> <ISBN>0143114344</ISBN> . . .</Book>
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Why Metadata?
• Resource DiscoveryHelp Users Find Things
• Archiving and PreservationMake Things Last
• InteroperabilityAllow Groups to Exchange Things
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Metadata Standards for Oral History
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What Are Standards And Why Would We Need Them?
• Standards Are An Agreement:– To Use a Common Schema– To Participate and Collaborate
• Standards Provide:– Interoperability (I can share what I
create)– Guidance (I can learn how to create)
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DC: Dublin Core
• A generalized method for describing all kinds of electronic (and non-electronic) resources
• Developed by broad coalition of users
• Supported by a wide range of applications
• Simple – 15 core elements
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EAD: Encoded Archival Description
• A method of encoding finding aids – a description and inventory of materials in an archive
• From the archival and library science traditions
• Complex• Archivists’ Toolkit
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TEI: Text Encoding Initiative
• A way of representing textual materials (monographs, performances, transcripts)
• Used by a variety of disciplines across the humanities
• Usually encoded by hand (oxygenXML)• Requires an application profile (TEI-
Lite)
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METS/PREMIS
• A container format for digital objects• Focused on the exchange of resources
and metadata between institutions• More for machines than for humans• Supported by a few applications
(CONTENTdm); but usually custom solutions
• Complex – modular structure
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Why So Many Standards?
• Different uses, different users• Same resource may be described
in multiple ways• Mix and Match = OK
• Sometimes, standards are not enough…
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Metadata in Oral History Practice
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Wayback Machine: Circa 2000
• Legacy data– Created by non-experts– Trapped in silos
• Standards still emerging– No good examples to follow– Very few tools
Roll our own…
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Densho Archive Framework
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Two Questions
• Who Will Use Our Metadata?
• How Will We Produce Our Metadata?
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Who Uses Our Metadata?
• Audience analysis– Staff– Densho Digital Archive & public
website visitors
• In the Future…– Partner repositories– Search agents
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Metadata Tools
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Metadata Tools
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Metadata Tools
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Metadata Tools
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Metadata Tools
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Metadata Tools
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How Do We Produce Metadata?
• Workflow analysis– When does metadata capture
happen?– Who is responsible?
• Custom web application – Densho Archive Manager
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Metadata Tools
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Metadata Tools
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In Summary…
• Metadata is about discovery, preservation and interoperability
• Standards provide guidance• Metadata should serve local
needs
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Thank you!
http://www.densho.org/http://archive.densho.org/