DESIRE: Project Deliverable Project Number: RE 1004 (RE) Project Title: DESIRE - Development of a European Service for Information on Research and Education Deliverable Number: D3.2 Deliverable Title: Specification for resource description methods. Part 1. A review of metadata: a survey of current resource description formats. Version Number 1.0 (19 March 1997) Deliverable Type: PU Deliverable Kind: RE Principal Author: Name Lorcan Dempsey and Rachel Heery Address UKOLN, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK E-Mail [email protected], [email protected] Telephone +44 (0)1225 826580 Fax Other Authors: Martin Hamilton, Debra Hiom, Jon Knight, Traugott Koch, Marianne Peereboom and Andy Powell Deliverable URL(s): Abstract: This study provides background information to the DESIRE project to enable the implications of using particular metadata formats to be assessed. Part I is a brief introductory review of issues including consideration of the environment of use and the characteristics of metadata formats. A braod typology of metadata is introduced to provide a framework for analysis. Part II consists of an outline of resource description formats in directory style. This includes generic formats, but also, to give an indication of the range of development, domain-specific formats. The focus is on metadata for 'information resources' broadly understood rather than on the variety of other approaches which exist within particular scientific, engineering and other areas. Keywords: metadata, BibTex, CIMI, Dublin Core, EAD, EEVL, EELS, FGDC, GILS, IAFA, whois++, ICPSR, LDAP, MARC, USMARC, UKMARC, UNIMARC, PICA+, SOIF, TEI,URC, Warwick Framework Page 1 version 1.0 21 March 1997 PART II: Executive Summary This document has been prepared as a working paper in the Indexing and Cataloguing work package of the DESIRE project (WP3), funded by the European Union as part of the Telematics for Research area of the Fourth Framework Programme. A companion document Resource description: initial recommendations for metadata formats <URL:http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/DESIRE/recommendations> lays out recommendations for metadata use within the subject-based information gateways within DESIRE. The DESIRE project will use a generic metadata format for the records in the subject-based information gateways. There are a number of options for this format. This study provides background information which allows the implications of using particular formats to be assessed. Part I is a brief introductory review of issues. Part II provides an outline of resource description formats in directory style. This second part includes generic formats, but also, to give an indication of the range of development, domain-specific formats. The intention is not to be comprehensive, but to give sufficient examples to support understanding of a rapidly developing environment. The focus is on metadata for 'information resources' broadly understood; a variety of other approaches exist within particular scientific, engineering and other areas. Metadata is data which describes attributes of a resource. A more formal definition is: metadata is data associated with objects which relieves their potential users of having to have full advance knowledge of their existence or characteristics. It is recognised that in an indefinitely large resource space, effective management of networked information will increasingly rely on effective management of metadata. The need for metadata services is already clear in the current Internet environment. As the Internet develops into a mixed information economy deploying multiple application protocols and formats this need will be all the greater. Metadata is not only key to discovery, it will also be fundamental to effective use of found resources (by establishing the technical or business frameworks in which they can be used) and to interoperability across protocol domains. Thus, the nature of the problem to be solved suggests a variety of solutions. It is unlikely that some monolithic metadata format will be universally used. This is for a number of more or less well known reasons, not least the investment represented by legacy systems in terms of technology and human effort. In Part I of this report we examine some characteristics of the environment in which network information of interest to European researchers is being created and some of the factors which are influencing the development of metadata services. Part II of this report describes a range of metadata formats under a number of standard headings. Page 2 version 1.0 21 March 1997 PART III Contents Preface..................................................................................................................................................................... 4 Part I - An overview of resource description issues................................................................................................. 5 Scope ....................................................................................................................................................................... 5 Metadata and its uses............................................................................................................................................... 5 Some characteristics of investigated metadata formats............................................................................................ 8 Conclusion............................................................................................................................................................. 11 Part II - A review of metadata formats .................................................................................................................. 12 BibTex................................................................................................................................................................... 12 Categories for the Description of Works of Art (CDWA)..................................................................................... 15 CIMI (Computer Interchange of Museum Information) ........................................................................................ 18 Dublin Core ........................................................................................................................................................... 21 Encoding Archival Description (EAD).................................................................................................................. 26 The EELS Metadata Format.................................................................................................................................. 31 The EEVL Metadata Format ................................................................................................................................. 33 FGDC - Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata............................................................................... 35 Government Information Locator Service (GILS)................................................................................................. 39 IAFA/whois++ Templates ..................................................................................................................................... 44 ICPSR SGML Codebook Initiative ....................................................................................................................... 49 LDAP Data Interchange Format (LDIF)................................................................................................................ 52 MARC (General overview) ................................................................................................................................... 55 USMARC .............................................................................................................................................................. 57 UKMARC ............................................................................................................................................................. 60 UNIMARC ............................................................................................................................................................ 61 PICA+.................................................................................................................................................................... 65 RFC 1807 .............................................................................................................................................................. 69 Summary Object Interchange Format (SOIF)........................................................................................................ 71 Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) Independent Headers............................................................................................ 75 Uniform Resource Characteristics/Citations (URCs) ............................................................................................ 79 Warwick Framework ............................................................................................................................................. 83 Peer reviews .......................................................................................................................................................... 88 Page 3 version 1.0 21 March 1997 PREFACE This document has been prepared as a working paper in the Indexing and Cataloguing work package of the DESIRE project (WP4), funded by the European Union as