Metadata in digital libraries

Reading question - how interoperable are the different metadata schemas?

-The term metadata is less commonly used among creators and consumers of networked digital content. Using web page tabs, folksonomies, and social bookmarks are growing practices.

Metadata should reflect three thing
1. Content - what the object contains or what is intrinsic to an information object
2. Context - indicates the who, what, why, where and how aspects associated with an objects creation and is extrinsic to an information object
3. Structure - relates to the formal set of associations with or among individual information objects and can be both intrinsic and extrensic.

Data Structure Standards - Catagories or containers of data that make up a record or information object. (MARC, EAD)

Data Value Standards - Terms, names, and other values that are used to populate data structure standards or metadata elements. (LOC Subject headings)

Data Content Standards - guidlines for the format and syntax of the data values that are used to populate metadata elements (DACS)

Data format/ technical interchange - type of standard is often a manifestation of a particular data structure standard, encoded or marked up for machine processing. (XML)

- information communities are aware that the more highly structured on information object is, the more that structure can be exploited for searching, manipulation and interrelating with other information objects. This can only occur with strict adherence to metadata standards.
-certifies the authenticity and degree of completeness of the content.
- est. and documents the context of the content
- identifies and exploits the structural relationship that exists within and between information objects.
- provides a range of intellectual access points for an increasingly diverse group of users.
- provides some of the info that an info professional would have provided in a reference scenario


Different types of metadata
Administrative - used in managing and administering collections and information resources

Descriptive - used to identify and describe collections and related information resources

Preservation - preservation management of collections and information resources. Documentation of physical condition of resources.

Technical - how a system functions

use - level and type of collections

Attributes and characteristics of metadata
source of metadata - internal metadata is generated by the creating agent with the item is digitized or born. external metadata is created by someone who is not the creator.

method of creation - automatically generated by the computer or manually by humans

nature of metadata - non-expert vs. expert creation

status static metadata never changes, dynamic changes with use, manipulation, or preservation

Semantics - controlled metadata vs. uncontrolled metadata

- metadata creation has become a complex combination of manual and automatic processes

Primary functions of metadata
-creation, multivisioning, reuse and recontextualization of information objects.
-organization and description
-validation - users scrutinize metadata to assure authenticity and authoritativeness
-searching and retrieval
-utilization and preservation - metadata related to user annotations, rights tracking and version control
-disposition - accession and deaccessioning

Bibliographic entities
documents, works, editions, authors, titles and subjects

MARC
-governed by AACR2R
-stored as a collection of tagged fields in a fairly complex format and is also used to represent authority records which are standarized form that are part of controlled vocabulary.

Dublin Core
-designed for nonspecific use
-simple/flexible has only 15 elements compared to hundreds in MARC

BibTeX - used for mathematical notation. manages bibliographic date and references within docs. end note?

Refer - similar to BibTeX