Item-level Metadata Research Articles

Common Metadata Framework for Research Data Repository: Necessity to Support Open Science

Metadata is vital for information storage and retrieval from a database or repository. In the case of Research Data Repositories (RDRs), metadata can be a potent tool for describing and identifying data. Further, producing the metadata is indispensable for fostering data reuse. A filtered view of the registry of research data repositories, re3data.org, depicts no uniform patterns or standards for metadata in the case of RDRs, and the metadata elements and practices differ from RDR to RDR. The present study describes the features of a select number of RDRs and analyzes their metadata practices: Harvard Dataverse, Dryad, Figshare, Zenodo, and the Open Science Framework (OSF). It further examines the total number of metadata elements, common metadata elements, required metadata elements, and item-level metadata. Results indicate that even though Harvard Dataverse has the most metadata elements, Dryad provides rich metadata concerning item level. This study suggests a common metadata framework, richer metadata elements, and more features to make the research data’s interoperability possible from one RDR to another.

Maps of a Nation? The Digitized Ordnance Survey for New Historical Research

Abstract Although the Ordnance Survey has itself been the subject of historical research, scholars have not systematically used its maps as primary sources of information. This is partly for disciplinary reasons and partly for the technical reason that high-quality maps have not until recently been available digitally, geo-referenced, and in color. A final, and crucial, addition has been the creation of item-level metadata which allows map collections to become corpora which can for the first time be interrogated en masse as source material. By applying new Computer Vision methods leveraging machine learning, we outline a research pipeline for working with thousands (rather than a handful) of maps at once, which enables new forms of historical inquiry based on spatial analysis. Our ‘patchwork method’ draws on the longstanding desire to adopt an overall or ‘complete’ view of a territory, and in so doing highlights certain parallels between the situation faced by today’s users of digitized maps, and a similar inflexion point faced by their predecessors in the nineteenth century, as the project to map the nation approached a form of completion.

Implementing RightsStatements.org at the University of Miami Libraries

INTRODUCTION Library digital collections have historically contained unstandardized and often inadequate information regarding copyright status in the item-level metadata. The development of RightsStatements.org, international recommendations for describing rights status, provides an opportunity for libraries to improve their rights metadata and educate users about copyright for digital objects. DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM This paper reports on a two-year project at the University of Miami Libraries to implement RightsStatements.org. Two librarians, who did not previously have a background in copyright issues, performed a copyright analysis of all 58,000 objects in the libraries' digital collections and developed workflows for updating rights metadata. Workflows for developing new digital projects were also updated to incorporate rights considerations more comprehensively throughout the process. CONCLUSIONS AND NEXT STEPS The copyright assessment project uncovered several challenges for analyzing the copyright status of digitized archival and special collections materials, including the need to periodically reevaluate materials as more content moves into the public domain in the United States. The project also reinforced the importance of risk management when planning digitization projects for online access. Project outcomes are discussed, as well as implications for other libraries considering implementing RightsStatements.org.

A logic-based framework for collection/item metadata relationships

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a framework for the articulation of relationships between collection-level and item-level metadata as logical inference rules. The framework is intended to allow the systematic generation of relevant propagation rules and to enable the assessment of those rules for particular contexts and the translation of rules into algorithmic processes.Design/methodology/approachThe framework was developed using first order predicate logic. Relationships between collection-level and item-level description are expressed as propagation rules – inference rules where the properties of one entity entail conclusions about another entity in virtue of a particular relationship those individuals bear to each other. Propagation rules for reasoning between the collection and item level are grouped together in the framework according to their logical form as determined by the nature of the propagation action and the attributes involved in the rule.FindingsThe primary findings are the analysis of relationships between collection-level and item-level metadata, and the framework of categories of propagation rules. In order to fully develop the framework, the paper includes an analysis of colloquial metadata records and the collection membership relation that provides a general method for the translation of metadata records into formal knowledge representation languages.Originality/valueThe method for formalizing metadata records described in the paper represents significant progress in the application of knowledge representation techniques to problems of metadata creation and management, providing a flexible technique for encoding colloquial metadata as a set of statements in first-order logic. The framework of rules for collection/item metadata relationships has a range of potential applications for the enhancement or metadata systems and vocabularies.

#MPLP Part 2: Replacing Item-Level Metadata with User-Generated Social Tags

ABSTRACT This article explores the potential for integrating and/or supplementing archival description with user-generated tags. The study was a mixed-methods, quasi-experimental design using a sam...

Descriptive Metadata for Field Books: Methods and Practices of the Field Book Project

Field books are primary source materials documenting the events leading up to, and including, the collection of specimens or observation of species for the purposes of natural history research. The mission of the Field Book Project (FBP) is to create one online location for field book content. The FBP uses the collection and item level descriptive standards Natural Collections Description (NCD) and Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS), respectively. Additionally, field book creators are described using Encoded Archival Context (EAC). In this paper we explain the descriptive metadata used by FBP for field books, which share characteristics of museum, archives, and library objects, and explain why these schemas were chosen, how they are used, and the challenges and future goals of FBP.

Information redundancy across metadata collections

Metadata records made available by content providers often lack the implicit information of their original use environment. Metadata aggregators therefore tend to emphasize completeness as a primary quality for shareable metadata. However, when adding implicit information to item-level records, data providers increase the redundancy of information contained in records from the same collection. The present paper reports on an effort to assess the extent and potential impact of information redundancy in metadata collections aggregated using the Open Archives Protocol for Metadata Harvesting. The first experiment quantifies the resemblance of metadata records on a collection-by-collection basis across 176 metadata collections aggregated for the CIC metadata portal. A second experiment measures the tendency of items from the same collection to appear together in results lists generated for a set of user queries. Results of the analyses correlate and suggest that within some collections item-level metadata records are not sufficiently differentiated to support certain digital library functions well. Metadata collections have a distinct role when included in larger aggregations, and in that role a minimum level of descriptive granularity is required to support digital library functions implemented by service providers. The experiments suggest possible ways to deal simultaneously with metadata record completeness, consistency, and redundancy.

Research and usage of collection level metadata in Chinese digital libraries

The World Wide Web and other information technologies have deeply changed our information environment and influenced how we index and access the information we need. The library is a good example of this revolution. Instead of a building that holds books, the library is evolving into an electronic portal to digital materials from across the globe. Facing so many distributed and heterogeneous digital resources, layered metadata are efficient but sophisticated tools that make it easier to find the best information resources. In recent years many types of item-level metadata with which people are familiar have appeared. In contrast to item-level metadata, collection level metadata has not been broadly used, especially in China. By illustrating what a collection is and why we should create collection level metadata, we introduce the research and usage of collection level metadata in China and analyze the problems and limitations of the metadata being used. Some suggestions as to its use are also mentioned.

Research and usage of collection level metadata in Chinese digital libraries

The World Wide Web and other information technologies have deeply changed our information environment and influenced how we index and access the information we need. The library is a good example of this revolution. Instead of a building that holds books, the library is evolving into an electronic portal to digital materials from across the globe. Facing so many distributed and heterogeneous digital resources, layered metadata are efficient but sophisticated tools that make it easier to find the best information resources. In recent years many types of item-level metadata with which people are familiar have appeared. In contrast to item-level metadata, collection level metadata has not been broadly used, especially in China. By illustrating what a collection is and why we should create collection level metadata, we introduce the research and usage of collection level metadata in China and analyze the problems and limitations of the metadata being used. Some suggestions as to its use are also mentioned.