Sherry Lake

Candidate for

Metadata Specialist for User Projects

The Big Red Bow

For Modeling Virginia

Metadata

CensusWeather Traffic

What is Metadata?

Information about an information resource of any media type or format.

Metadata Fundamentals for All Librarians, Priscilla Caplan, 2003.

Information To….. Identify Find Access Manage Help in using the data

Community Specific Metadata

metadata for describing structural divisions in text standard for encoding finding aids so that they can be searched and viewed online

describe works of visual culture and images.metadata for describing maps, and geospatial datasets standard for description of social and behavioral sciences datasets

TEI EAD VRA

CSDGM (FGDC)

DDI

General Metadata Schemes

Format used in traditional libraries

MARC

METS

GDMS

Dublin Core

MODS

DescMeta

Library of Congress metadata for describing complex digital library

Objects. It encodes descriptive, administrative, and structural metadata Developed by UVA’s Digital Research and Development Group for collection and data objects

A simple international standard metadata for describing digital resources across disciplines Descriptive metadata, derivative of MARC21 UVa’s descriptive metadata for Digital Library objects

Cross Discipline Project

Digital Library Research and Development

Brown Science and Engineering Library

Geospatial and Statistical Data Center

Civil Engineering

Systems and Information Engineering

Various Undergraduate and Graduate Students

Project Goals

To provide easy access to a diverse collection of data resources about Virginia

To design a general approach to collection building (and metadata) that can be applied to all kinds of statistical and science datasets

Project Scope

United States Census of Population and Housing 2000, Virginia: Summary File 3

Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Data

National Climatic Data Center (Virginia), Climate Surface Data

The Data Problem

Three different datasets Space and time Definitions and terms

Various “native” data formats SPSS Comma Delimited Oracle Database

Lots of Data for Virginia 135 counties, 48 files each (Census) 1948 – 2005, 1326 historical & active stations (Climate)

Simplifying the Problem

Choosing a subset of the data to test the design

Breaking the data down into smaller parts;

defining “Datasets Objects”

Choosing a common file format; creating “Database Objects”

Modeling Virginia Objects

Modeling Virginia

Census Traffic Weather

2000 Station Data Climate Division 1 Climate Division 2Incident Data

CountySchool Districts

Hampton Va Beach Norfolk

File 1 File 2 File 3

Dataset Object Metadata

Metadata Purpose

Metadata Standard

1. To describe the hierarchical dataset2. To use for discovery3. To tie the datasets together

1. GDMS (General Descriptive Modeling Scheme)

2. Position for use in UVa’s Digital Library

Database Object Metadata

Do the datasets have “native” metadata?

What existing standards are best suited for numerical data? FGDC? DDI?

Other Considerations?

Choosing a Standard

Review of FGDC and DDI with the following criteria:

Data file description as a wholePhysical description of the file formatVariable level descriptionVariable, physical description

Using the DDI Standard

Created a Data Dictionary

Applying the Digital Library’s Minimum Metadata Requirements

Using only metadata elements that apply to these database objects and the project

Training with Metadata

Instructed members how to create DDI files Advised on metadata content Created DDI-XML Template

One-on-one training with Nesstar Publisher Created Nesstar Templates

One-on-one and group training on GDMS

Images

Reviewing Metadata

Checked sample DDI mark-up files

Discussed the use of other DDI elements

Group review of GDMS output

Review of Metadata is continuing

Results

Demo of Modeling Virginia (Census Data)

What I Learned

All data objects are different and each have different metadata needs

Be clear, consistent and specific

Don’t be afraid to alter standards to fit your need: Document your Practice!

Metadata must be reviewed and reviewed

Include information creators in metadata creation.

http://www.people.virginia.edu/~sah/presentation.html

Metadata the Big Red Bow