Introduction to a Special Issue on Metadata: Selected papers from the Dublin Core 2001 Conference

Traugott Koch, Stuart Weibel

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The ABC Ontology and Model

Carl Lagoze, Jane Hunter

This paper describes the latest version of the ABC metadata model. This model has been developed within the Harmony international digital library project to provide a common conceptual model to facilitate interoperability between metadata ontologies from different domains. This updated ABC model is the result of collaboration with the CIMI consortium whereby earlier versions of the ABC model were applied to metadata descriptions of complex objects provided by CIMI museums and libraries. The result is a metadata model with more logically grounded time and entity semantics. Based on this model we have been able to build a metadata repository of RDF descriptions and a search interface which is capable of more sophisticated queries than less-expressive, object-centric metadata models will allow.

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Multilingual Access to Dublin Core Metadata of ULIS Library

Danyang Wen, Tetsuo Sakaguchi, Shigeo Sugimoto, Koichi Tabata

With the recent Internet expansion, people all over the world can access more and more document databases. As Unicode has become more popular, the environment for multilingual retrieval has improved to some extent. However, there are still numerous problems to be solved, such as multilingual input and display. This paper proposes a system for retrieving ULIS Japanese metadata. The system provides convenience for overseas users for multilingual access by solving these problems and by indicating candidates for translated words and Boolean queries based on the statistics of the system's behavior.

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METAXPath

Curtis E. Dyreson, Michael H. Bohlen, Christian S. Jensen

This paper presents the METAXPath data model and query language. METAXPath extends XPath with support for XML metadata. XPath is a specification language for locations in an XML document. It serves as the basis for XML query languages like XSLT and the XML Query Algebra. The METAXPath data model is a nested XPath tree. Each level of metadata induces a new level of nesting. The data model separates metadata and data into different dataspaces, supports meta-metadata, and enables sharing of metadata common to a group of nodes without duplication. The METAXPath query language has a level shift operator to shift a query from a data level to a metadata level. METAXPath maximally reuses XPath hence the changes needed to support metadata are few. METAXPath is fully compatible with XPath.

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A Metadata Kernel for Electronic Permanence

John A. Kunze

This paper presents a streamlined metadata record format designed to support the permanence of network discoverable objects. It starts with the Dublin Core consensus and distills out a subset of four semantic buckets - a metadata kernel - that balances the needs for adequate identification of persistent objects and for low cost metadata generation. To minimize the burden of creating, understanding, and manipulating data in those buckets, a very simple record format has been designed, called an Electronic Resource Citation (ERC). The basic ERC can be parsed by two lines of Perl code. Beyond permanence support, the ERC design suggests quite a new path for the ongoing development of simple metadata; readers familiar with the current evolutionary challenges may find the ERC to be simpler, and yet more complete, compact, extensible,and international than the Dublin Core.

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What Terms Does Your Metadata Use? Application Profiles as Machine-Understandable Narratives

Thomas Baker, Makx Dekkers, Rachel Heery, Manjula Patel, Gauri Salokhe

The SCHEMAS Registry aims at providing a selected and annotated overview of metadata vocabularies and their use in application environments. Based on harvested metadata in RDF (Resource Description Framework), the registry allows users to explore links between "namespace schemas", which declare standard definitions of metadata terms, and "application profiles". RDF statements about the use or adaptation of namespace terms for particular domains, services, or projects. Where instance metadata does not follow standard namespaces or explicit data models, this style allows implementors to assert an explicit mapping to standard terms. Registering profiles can help harmonize metadata usage in particular domains and, in the longer term, could provide a machine-processable basis for automating crosswalks and conversions.

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Author-generated Dublin Core Metadata for Web Resources: A Baseline Study in an Organization

Jane Greenberg, Maria Cristina Pattuelli, Bijan Parsia, W. Davenport Robertson

This paper reports on a study that examined the ability of resource authors to create acceptable metadata in an organizational setting. The results indicate that authors can create good quality metadata when working with the Dublin Core, and in some cases they may be able to create metadata that is of better quality than a metadata professional can produce. This research suggests that authors think metadata is valuable for resource discovery, that it should be created for Web resources, and that they, as authors, should be involved in metadata production for their works. The study also indicates that a simple Web form, with textual guidance and selective use of features (e.g. pop-up windows, drop-down menus, etc.) can assist authors in generating good quality metadata.

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RDF Declarative Description (RDD): A Language for Metadata

Chutiporn Anutariya, Vilas Wuwongse, Kiyoshi Akama, Ekawit Nantajeewarawat

RDF Declarative Description (RDD) is a metadata modeling language which extends RDF(S) expressiveness by provision of generic means for succinct and uniform representation of metadata, their relationships, rules and axioms. Through its expressive mechanism, RDD can directly represent all RDF-based languages such as OIL and DAML-family markup languages (e.g., DAML+OIL and DAML-S), and hence allows their intended meanings to be determined directly without employment of other formalisms. Therefore, RDD readily enables interchangeability, interoperability as well as integrability of metadata applications, developed independently by different communities and exploiting different schemas and languages. Moreover, RDD is also equipped with computation and query-processing mechanisms. Keywords: Metadata, RDF, RDF Schema, RDF Declarative Description, RDD language.

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zetoc: a Dublin Core Based Current Awareness Service

Ann Apps, Ross MacIntyre

zetoc is a current awareness service for UK Higher and Further Education providing Z39.50 access to the British Library's Electronic Table of Contents database of journal articles and conference papers. The zetoc database, updated daily, may also be searched via a World Wide Web interface. An alerting service provides tables of contents by email for new journal issues when they are loaded. The current version of zetoc is Z39.50 Bath Profile compliant and can provide Dublin Core records encoded in XML in answer to Z39.50 search requests. An enhanced version of zetoc, currently a prototype under development, will hold the data within an XML repository, using Dublin Core as the basis of the metadata schema. This paper describes the encoding of bibliographic records for journal articles and conference papers in Dublin Core, and the interoperability between Dublin Core and other bibliographic standards. Keywords: Dublin Core, bibliographic citations, metadata standards, current awareness.

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