describing museum collections: metadata schemas for cld pre-conference workshop, mda conference...

Describing museum collections:metadata schemas for CLD

Pre-conference Workshop,mda Conference “Common Threads”,

Edgbaston, Birmingham, 3 September 2002

Pete JohnstonUKOLN, University of Bath

Bath, BA2 7AY

UKOLN is supported by:

[email protected]://www.ukoln.ac.uk/

Pre-conference Workshop, mda Conference, Edgbaston, 3 September 2002

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Describing collections:metadata schemas for CLD

• CLD in museums• Encoded Archival Description (EAD)• RSLP Collection Description model

and schema


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Collection-level description in museums

• Existing CLDs often informal, unstructured– For presentation to human reader– Little standardisation of content

• Or where structured, specific to project/service application?

• Limited capacity for – exchange and reuse of collection-level metadata– cross-searching of distributed collection-level

metadata– sharing of tools

The Encoded Archival Description DTD


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Encoded Archival Description (EAD)

• N.B. Only a simplified overview!• SGML/XML Document Type Definition for

encoding archival finding aids• Owned/maintained by Society of American

Archivists/Library of Congress • Hierarchical finding-aids• “Structured document” approach• Designed to encompass broad range of

existing practice– flexibility v interoperability issues?– retrospective v prospective

(Shaw, 2001)

http://www.loc.gov/ead/ http://www.loc.gov/ead/


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Structure of an EAD-encoded documentEAD

Header

Description of archival collection/fonds

Description oforiginal finding aid

Description ofencoded finding aid

Description of sub-fonds

Description of sub-fonds

Description of item

Description of item

DSC


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Structure of an EAD-encoded document

EAD

eadheader

archdesc

filedesc profiledesc

c01 c01

c02 c02

dsc


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Structure of an EAD-encoded document

<ead> <eadheader> <eadid></eadid> <filedesc></filedesc> <profiledesc></profiledesc> </eadheader> <archdesc> <dsc> <c01> <c02> </c02> </c01> <c01> </c01> </dsc> </archdesc></ead>


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Core descriptive elements in EAD

• did– unitid– unittitle– origination

– physdesc– physloc– unitdate– abstract

• Basic descriptive information– identification– title– agent responsible for

creation/accumulation– size and form– locator– creation date– brief summary


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• admininfo

– acqinfo– custodhist– accessrestrict– userestrict– altformavail– accruals– appraisal

– processinfo

• Background descriptive information

– immediate source– custodial history– conditions affecting availability– conditions affecting use– alternate forms– anticipated additions– info about determining archival

value– info about processes applied


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• bioghist• scopeandcontent

• add

– bibliography– otherfindaid– relatedmaterial– separatedmaterial

• controlaccess– subject– persname– corpname– geogname (etc)

• Information about creator• Narrative description of

range/coverage– Description of supplementary

material– works based on/about material– other catalogues, guides etc– related material – material related by provenance but

separated

– Access points


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EAD and non-archival collections

• Some use of EAD for describing non-archival collections

– Museums in the Online Archive of California (MOAC)

– Natural History Museum, London– Archival– Library– Specimen

• Is EAD a “collection description schema”?• Are the semantics of EAD specific to archive

or archive-like collections?

The RSLP Collection Description

Model and Schema


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Research Support Libraries Programme

• Support for academic researchers– disclosure of collections– discovery of/access to collections– collaborative management of collections

• Collections in RSLP– projects describing primarily collections of

physical items (library/archive)– projects also describing digital catalogues (which

describe physical items) – collections of metadata records

– projects creating new digital collections of collection descriptions

– collections of metadata records


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RSLP Collection Description project

• Project– funded by RSLP, with support from OCLC, Sept

1999 – Sept 2000– collaboration between

– Michael Heaney (Oxford)

– Andy Powell, Michael Day (UKOLN)

• Aims– means of consistent collection description in RSLP– minimise duplication of effort in projects– simple, high-level description– aligned with other metadata work


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A Model for Collections

• Michael Heaney, An Analytical Model of Collections and their Catalogues

– Implementation independent

• Based primarily on a library and archival view of ‘collection’...

– but intended to be applicable across wide range of collection types

• Identifies– Entities– Attributes/properties of entities– Relationships between entities

• Functionally (IFLA FRBR) concerned with : – Finding (access points for discovery)– Identifying (sufficient for user interpretation)


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RSLP Model (simplified view)

ContentCreatorcreates

Collector

Owner

collects

owns

Administratoradministers

ItemProducerproduces

is-embodied-in

Collection

is-gathered-into

Location

is-located-in


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Entities in RSLP Model

• Content– an intellectual creation, without reference

to an instantiation

• Item– a concrete realisation (physical/digital)of

Content

• Collection– an aggregation of items– implementer to make pragmatic decisions

about level of aggregation – “functional granularity”


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• Location– “the physical or digital place where a

collection is held”– physical location - e.g. a library or

museum– postal address

– digital location i.e a network service– URL of Web site, Z39.50 target details

– Note: physical item at single location, but digital item available through multiple services


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• Agent– “a person or corporate body related to the

collection or location”– initiates actions– has rights, controls access/use

• Collector – gathers items into a collection

• Owner– has legal possession of a collection

• Administrator– has responsibility for the physical or digital

environment in which a collection is held


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External relationships

• Collection to collection– Has-Part, Has-Complement– Has-Association– Has-Version

• Collection to publication– Has-Publication

• Collection to collection description– Is-Described-By


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A Schema for Collection-Level Description

• RSLP Collection Description Schema– structured set of metadata attributes– simple description of subset of entities in Heaney

model– Collection– Location– Agents

– attributes based on Dublin Core Element Set (including refinements) where possible

• RSLP CD schema supports creation of “unitary” collection description

• RSLP CD instance – set of linked descriptions of several resources


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RSLP CD Schema as subset of model

ContentCreatorcreates

Collector

Owner

collects

owns

Administratoradministers

ItemProducerproduces

is-embodied-in

Collection

is-gathered-into

Location

is-located-in


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RSLP CD Schema : agents

Collector

Owner

collects

owns

Collection

administers

Administrator

Locationis-located-in


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RSLP CD Schema : isPartOf relations

Collector

Owner

Collection

Administrator

Location

Collection Location

is-part-of


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Collection attributes

general attributes• title, identifier, description, strength, physical

characteristics, language, type, access control, accrual status, legal status, custodial history, note

subject attributes• concept(s), object(s), name(s), place(s),

time(s)

date attributes• contents date range, accumulation date

range


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Location attributes

general attributes• name, identifier, access conditions, see also

location (physical)• postal address, postcode, country

location (digital)• locator


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Agent attributes

general attributes• name, organisation, role, phone, fax, email,

agent history


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Relation attributes

relations between collection and location• hasLocation/isLocationOf

relations between collection and agent• collector (creator), owner

relations between location and agent• administrator

relations between collections (external)• hasPart/isPartOf,

hasDescription/isDescriptionOf, hasAssociation hasPublication


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Data entry guidelines

• Produced by RSLP CD project• Guidance for content of RSLP schema

attributes– especially “encoding schemes”

– language

– dates

– subject terminologies for CLDs?

• Associated list of collection types– terms split into four areas

– type, curatorial environment, content, policy/usage

• Extended collection types for museums?


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• Can be expressed using RDF model– RDF/XML syntax for serialising descriptions

• Web-based creation tool• Implemented by several RSLP projects

– subject-based or regional databases of CLDs– presently no cross-RSLP search

• Some application to museum collections– Crossroads– Find It In London– potentially Cornucopia, SWMLAC?


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• RSLP CD Schema– A means of creating simple, high-level

descriptions for wide range of collections – Not a substitute for existing richer

schemas for CLD– A “Dublin Core” for collections?– Useful for museums?


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Acknowledgements

UKOLN is funded by Resource: the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the UK higher and further education funding councils, as well as by project funding from the JISC and the European Union. UKOLN also receives support from the University of Bath where it is based.

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/


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References

Encoded Archival Description (EAD) <http://www.loc.gov/ead/>

Elizabeth Shaw, “Rethinking EAD: balancing flexibility and interoperability”, New Review of Information Networking, Vol 7 (2001)

RSLP Collection Description project (1999-2000)<http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/rslp/>

Michael Heaney, An Analytical Model of Collections and their Catalogues (Jan 2000)<http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/rslp/model/amcc-v31.pdf/>

http://www.loc.gov/ead/





http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/rslp/







http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/rslp/model/amcc-v31.pdf/











describing museum collections: metadata schemas for cld pre-conference workshop, mda conference...

Documents

cld preconference workshop

mda conference common

eadencoded document

collection description

collectionlevel description

schema slide

highlevel description

museum collections