1 qa focus – supporting jisc's digital library programmes qa for metadata: exercise 1 brian...

QA Focus – Supporting JISC's Digital Library Programmes1

QA For Metadata:Exercise 1

Brian Kelly and Amanda ClosierUKOLN

Gareth KnightAHDS

This presentation reviews the exercise in use of the <acronym> and <abbr> HTML tags which highlight general issues concerning use of metadata

This presentation reviews the exercise in use of the <acronym> and <abbr> HTML tags which highlight general issues concerning use of metadata


QA For Metadata Exercise 1

In small groups you attempted exercise 1a:• Policies to ensure your acronyms and

abbreviations are interoperable• Procedures to ensure your policies are

implemented correctly

We will now review:• Areas of difficulties in using these tags• Justification for using such metadata• Interoperability issues• Quality Assurance

About <Acronym> and <Abbr> Tags

The <abbr> tag indicates an abbreviated form (e.g., WWW, HTML, URI, et al. etc.) and includes initialisms.

The <acronym> tag indicates an acronym (e.g., FAIR, CETIS, etc.).

The title attribute can be used to provide the full or expanded form of an expression.

Examples:• <abbr title="World Wide Web">WWW</abbr> • <acronym title="Joint Information Systems Committee">JISC</abbr>

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See W3C's definition of these tags

Benefits

AccessibilitySpeaking browsers will speak out:

• Individual letters of abbreviations – e.g. WWW as Double-You – Double-You – Double-You – Double-You

• Acronyms as a word – e.g. JISC as Jisc

InteroperabilityTom Heath's acronym robot can create an automated glossary

• See acronym tool - <http://www.materials.ac.uk/acronyms/>

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Acronym Tag: Issues (1)

• People don’t know this tag exists!• Confusion over whether <acronym> or <abbr> is

used All acronyms are abbreviations, but all

abbreviations are not acronyms Acronyms can be considered a subset of

abbreviations• Lack of consistency in way words are pronounced

e.g. FAQ, SQL, URL, …• Changes over time e.g. origins of radar, laser, etc. • Cultural differences (US vs UK English)

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See discussion of issues

Some abbreviations are confusing because they:• Are excepted into everyday language e.g. info, Mac• Are abbreviated in one language but spoken in

others e.g. e.g short for exempli gratia but used as for example

• No longer mean anything e.g. UKOLN

Should they be marked up? Does the reader need more information? How relevant are they? Do we use:

<abbr title="exempli gratia" lang="la">e.g.</abbr>

<abbr title="for example" lang="en">e.g.</abbr>

<abbr title="for example">e.g.</abbr>

e.g.

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Issues about how the terms are marked-up:• Nesting decisions e.g. FAQs in the tags vs just FAQ

with the 's' left outside (FAQs)• Capitalisation in the meanings e.g. hewlett-packard

vs Hewlett-Packard• Punctuation e.g. I.T. vs IT• Formal expansion of chatty text • Changes in meaning of acronym• …

<acronym title="Facilitating Access to Information on Learning Technology for Engineers">FAILTE</acronym> or <acronym title="FAILTE stands for Facilitating Access to Information on Learning Technology for Engineers. Failte is also the Gaelic word for Welcome and is pronounced fawl-sha">FAILTE</acronym>

<acronym title="Facilitating Access to Information on Learning Technology for Engineers">FAILTE</acronym> or <acronym title="FAILTE stands for Facilitating Access to Information on Learning Technology for Engineers. Failte is also the Gaelic word for Welcome and is pronounced fawl-sha">FAILTE</acronym>

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Acronym Tag: Issues (4)Do we markup phrases based on:

• Policies & definitions• Browser support

Note that Opera & Mozilla support the tags but IE does not

Issues:• The markup takes time and as the

most popular browser doesn't support it, it's not worth doing

• It's a standard, so we should do it• It provides interoperability, so we

should do it• IE is evil, so we should do it• …

Issues:• The markup takes time and as the

most popular browser doesn't support it, it's not worth doing

• It's a standard, so we should do it• It provides interoperability, so we

should do it• IE is evil, so we should do it• …

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Markup errors: • <acronym alt="foo"> rather than <acronym title="foo">

• <abbrev> rather than <abbr>

Markup in attributes:• Use of <acronym alt="foo"> or <abbr alt="World Wide ..

Invalid characters:• Unescaped character entities such as & (&)

Incorrect content:• <acronym title="Extended Markup Langauge">XML</acronym>

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Use automated validators

Needs manual checking



How should you create and manage your acronym and abbreviation markup?

• Create by hand

• Functionality provided by your CMS

• Dedicated tools e.g. acrobot

http://www.accessify.com/tools-and-wizards/acrobot/

http://www.accessify.com/tools-and-wizards/acrobot/

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Can the benefits provided justify the costs of implementation?Automated Glossary

• The acronym harvester and glossary tool provide a lightweight mechanism for producing a glossary

• If every JISC project marked up acronyms on their home page (project names, organisations, technologies) this could provide a simple but effective mechanism for providing a glossary

http://www.materials.ac.uk/acronyms/location.asp

http://www.materials.ac.uk/acronyms/location.asp

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Note the acronyms have been marked up in QA Focus documents – project names come from the case studies

Note the acronyms have been marked up in QA Focus documents – project names come from the case studies

Choosing Or Creating A Schema• What schema should we use for our metadata (i.e.

how do we structure our metadata)?• Do we use a standard schema (good for

interoperability) or develop our own (may provide better support for local needs)

Acronym Example:• It would be useful to split acronyms into project

names, organisations, technologies and other• Could be implemented with <acronym class="org" title="Joint …" >JISC</ acronym>

• But how do we get consensus on schema, implement support in tools, validate, get buy-in, …

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Acronym Tag: Solutions

To deal with the issues when using the acronym and abbr tags QA Focus have developed:

• A documented policy: Oxford ED No punctuation Formal definition – additional info in normal text

• A set of procedures: Staff development Automated

validation Ad hoc manual checking to spot content errors

• Justification – automated glossary for Web site (possibly contributing to glossary across projects?)

Ideally support would be built into a CMS, but we currently don't use a CMS

Ideally support would be built into a CMS, but we currently don't use a CMS

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Conclusions

This simple example illustrates several points:• Metadata is not just about resource discovery• Metadata needs managing• Before you can manage your metadata you will

need policies so you (and others) have an agreed and shared understanding

• It is always useful to make use of a standard• But standards can sometimes be flawed,

inconsistent, etc.• Support for your metadata may also be incomplete• You should think carefully about your approach for

managing your metadata• You don't have to use metadata!


Exercise 1b

You wish to create and manage metadata for your 5,000 tracks on your 20 Gb MP3 player. Additional challenges: application hardwired in player, no open source solution

Issues:

• Choice of file format: Universal MP3 or better but more proprietary WMA format

• Selection of genres: Leave to central database or use own schema e.g. house, acid, garage vs modern rubbish :-)

• File names: Player plays tracks in alphabetic order so need artist – track_no. – track_title and not track_title. But if multiple artists on CD need CD_name – track_no. – track_title

• Interoperability: Decisions taken for me & my player or allow for further players, family's music metadata, …

• Other issues: Compilation CDs, collections, physical CDs, ...


Conclusions (1b)

Further conclusions:• Policies are needed even for small-scale personal

applications• You can't always program your way out of

difficulties• There may be conflicts between local usage and

wider interoperability• There is a need to be aware of how applications will

use your metadata, so you shouldn't develop your metadata model and policies independently of the applications

Note that managing a 20 Gb MP3 music player containing 5,000+ tracks has similarities to managing a small library!

Note that managing a 20 Gb MP3 music player containing 5,000+ tracks has similarities to managing a small library!


Any Questions?

1 qa focus – supporting jisc's digital library programmes qa for metadata: exercise 1 brian...

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