A Registry for Dublin Core on DCMI

Tracking linguistic variation and equivalences

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Model: MetaForm Project

State and University Library, Goettingen
Local "manifestations" of Dublin Core™ for specific projects introduce variations -- like "dialects"
"Crosscuts" -- how are elements used in different implementations?
Provides "mappings" and "crosswalks" between Dublin Core™ and other schemas of similar scope
Demonstrates the sort of output one would want from queries to a distributed registry

Tracking linguistic variation and equivalences

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Slide 10 of 16

thomas.baker@gmd.de

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

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thomas.baker@gmd.de

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Slide 16 of 16

Requirements for the DCMI registry

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Requirements for the DCMI registry

Users and implementors need

a dictionary of terms
a place to publish project- or discipline-specific adaptations to share with colleagues and partners

Requirements for the DCMI registry

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Slide 5 of 16

Registries as dictionaries

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Metadata systems, like languages, need dictionaries for tracking usage and managing change

Like language dictionaries, registries can:

Prescribe good grammar and good usage guidelines
Describe how implementors are actually using metadata
Translate between natural languages
Define the "parts of speech" of metadata grammar -- building blocks of sentences

Registries as dictionaries

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Slide 4 of 16

RDF as a publication format for schemas

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

How standards are are currently defined:

in HTML pages and paper documents
no explicit hyperlinks between related elements in different standards

RDF as a publication format for schemas

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Slide 7 of 16

Namespaces versus Profiles

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Implementors usually need to "mix and match"

use parts of one standard with parts of another
coin some local terms to fill in gaps

Namespaces versus Profiles

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Slide 12 of 16

Metadata is a language

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

A metadata "sentence" might say:

"This watercolor has Painter Joseph Beuys, Title Ohne Titel, and Date Painted 1959.

Dublin Core™ was designed as a simple metadata language -- a"pidgin" of general concepts for coarse-grained resource discovery.

In unqualified Dublin Core, the sentence above would say:

"This resource has Creator Joseph Beuys, Title Ohne Titel, and Date 1959.

Metadata is a language

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Slide 2 of 16

Metadata grammar

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

DCMI grammar: Elements and Qualifiers

Resources (Web pages, books, museum objects) have things like Creators and Titles -- Elements

Metadata grammar

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Slide 15 of 16

Mapping between schemas via an interlingua

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Model: DESIRE Project Metadata Registry

UK Office of Library and Information Networking, Bath
Maps various schemas to a core of shared concepts (interlingua)
- In DESIRE Registry, based on ISO Basic Semantic Registry
Suggests how interoperability might be achieved among multiple schemas in a scalable manner (n-to-1 instead of n-to-n)

Mapping between schemas via an interlingua

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Slide 11 of 16

Linking multiple translations of a standard

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Model: Multilingual Dublin Core™ Project

University of Library and Information Science, Tsukuba, Japan
Uses RDF schemas to share machine-readable tokens for translations of DC terms in Japanese, Arabic, Punjabi (26 languages to date)
Java applets for displaying fonts
Raises policy questions: How can we manage the evolution of Dublin Core™ as a multilingual standard? How can other language communities help shape the global (English) standard?