Establishing Metadata Practices

Chris Burns

Winona Salesky

Background

IMLS Center for Digital Initiatives Digital Initiatives Librarian

Infrastructure

People Space Digital Asset Management System Interface

Digital Asset Management Systems

The Contenders ContentDM eXist Fedora Greenstone XTF

Evaluation Matrix

Software ContentDM Greenstone Fedora eXist XTF

Data Types          

EAD Finding Aids No No Yes Yes Yes

TEI (full text) No TEI, poor full text handling

No TEI, full text stored as plain text

Yes Yes Yes

Descriptive Metadata Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Preservation Metadata No No Yes Yes Yes

Structural Metadata- METS Outputs Mets Outputs Mets Yes Yes Yes

Other formats (Sound, video, PDF, etc)

Limited Unclear Yes Yes Limited

Costs          

Purchase Price  Annual fee Open source & Free Open source & Free Open source & Free

Open source & Free

Staff Time Some time for customization, but is essentially an out-of-the-box system that runs as is

Some time for customization, but is essentially an out-of-the-box system that runs as is

Lots of customization needed. High learning curve.

Lots ofCustomizationdepending onsystem needs.

Unclear.

Software “Add-Ons” Some versions come with JPEG200, and

OCR

None Possible integration with a “METS navigator” and Xforms

Integration with

METS navigator

and Xforms

Integration with Fedora

Evaluation Matrix Cont.Software ContentDM Greenstone Fedora eXist XTF

Searching          

Simple Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Advanced Yes (fielded searching and full text)

Yes (customizable field searching and full text)

Yes (May be customizable)

Yes - customizable Yes – customizable

Implementation Comes ready to go, can be customized

Comes ready to go, can be customized

Unclear Must be written Comes ready to go, can be customized

Dynamic Browsing Yes, can browse on indexed terms

? Unclear Yes Unclear

User Interface          

Customizable Somewhat Somewhat Yes Fully customizable Fully customizable

Browse Options Somewhat Customizable

Titles, subjects. Others Unclear Fully customizable Unclear

Preservation          

Speed of deployment 2-3 months 2-3 months 12-14 months 6-8 months Unclear

Proprietary Yes No No No No

Ability to Extract Data for future Migrations

A variety of export methods for descriptive metadata only.

Yes. METS record with Greenstone metadata format for technical, relative links to images

Yes, METS record

Yes, METS record Yes, METS record

eXist XML Native Database

Open Source XML native database

Stores data as xml – retains data integrity Development time is reasonable Easy to integrate web services Easy to export data to future digital asset

management systems if necessary

Faceted Browsing - Solr

Increased avenues for discovery Allows users to easily “build” complex searches Prevent empty results sets Integrates keyword searching with browse-ability Always a visible “path” so users never feel lost Allows users to expand and narrow results set Easier to explore the true extent of the collection Recognition over recall Easy to add new facets, categories, or items

Some limitations of facets

Use of facets will make inconstancies in metadata obvious to users

Some facets become unmanageable with large result sets

Facets work better on some fields than others

Metadata Selection

METS (Metadata Encoding & Transmission Standard) Structural Metadata

Dublin Core / MODS Descriptive metadata

TEI EAD Preservation Metadata

Levels of Description

Collection level Items Items with Transcriptions or OCR Items with pre-existing descriptive metadata Folder Level Description Finding Aids with Links to Digital Objects

Metadata Workflow

Captured at the time of scanning OCR/Transcription Descriptions Subject Headings Authority Control

Structural Metadata Creation

Descriptive Metadata Creation

Xforms Platform and device independent Separates data and logic from

presentation XML in, XML out XML Schema validation Reduces or eliminates the need for

scripting Does not require expensive round-

tripping when the data is modified

Lessons

Staffing is critical Images are faster than text to describe Minimal descriptive metadata Software choice

Staffing needs Flexible, easy to migrate out of, interoperable with other

products Record of eXist has been mixed

Xforms editor Has made xml data entry easier Firefox extension

More Info

Codehttp://code.google.com/p/xforms4lib/

Exampleshttp://cdi.uvm.edu/exist/xforms/modshttp://cdi.uvm.edu/exist/xforms/modsSimple

Bloghttp://thedil.wordpress.com/