Speaker Dodie Gaudet - Digital Commonwealth 2010

Metadata I: From the Beginning, by Dodie Gaudet

What is metadata? It is:

• data about data
• a method for organizing information for retrieval
• bibliographic record - cataloging, among other definitions.

Metadata can be data about an object that is visible, or it can be administrative metadata, important for maintaining collection. Catalogers are responsible for metadata and use a variety of standards, such as EAD, AACR2 and MARC. Gaudet covered the basics of Dublin Core, or "DC."

If "Core" is part of the name of the standard, that means that the standard is pretty basic. Standards have a governing group. DC is maintained by Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI).

DC is flexble because it is extensible, works with other metadata, and uses commonly understood terminology.

A program, programming language, or protocol is extensible if it is designed so that users or developers can expand or add to its capabilities. ex. a Dewey number might get longer as a book's subject gets more precise: 782.9867875432. Dewey is extensible! Some common mark-up languages used to make web pages use the letter X to signify extensibility, such as XML and XHTML.


Differences of Dublin Core when used with Digital Treasures Project (DTP):

• DC is extensible, but not when in use with DTP
• In DC, all elements optional can leave a field blank. In Digital Treasures all items require title
• all items are repeatable / can appear in any order while in use
• controlled vocabulary is recommended (LC Subject Headings)
• similarity in bibliographic record
  

There are 15 Elements in a Dublin Core Record:

1. Title self-explanatory / it is helpful to use something specific
2. Creator / author /who took photograph / can not use on separate lines/ use semicolon
3. Subject /content of the resource / what is in photo?
4. description / freedom
5. publisher: C/WMARS
   
6. contributor: help / assistant / illustrator
7. Date: date of photograph or text / ISO8601
   
8. type: image or text
   
9. format: image/jpg or text/jpg
10. identifier: to find in your library
11. source: consider relation item first; can describe ex. 8.5 x 11 text
12. Language: ISO639 en-US
13. Relation: came from said book, or letter is from collection
14. coverage: time period or physical location
15. rights: copyright / permission

To use the Digital Treasures Project:

• simply send your metadata and photo to C/WMARS -you must create metadata first, or it might never get done.