1 / 20

When worlds collide….

At the RLG/VRA Annual Conference held on March 8, 2005, Ricky Erway, Digital Resources Manager, shared vital insights on the complexities of metadata in museums, libraries, and archives. This session emphasized the essential intersection of metadata practices, highlighting the challenges of normalizing terms, atomizing data, and managing inconsistencies. By exploring real-world examples, Erway illustrated key conversion processes necessary for creating effective cultural materials, making this session a must for anyone involved in metadata management and digital resources.

micheal
Télécharger la présentation

When worlds collide….

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. When worlds collide…. Ricky Erway, Digital Resources Manager, RLG VRA Annual Conference -- March 8, 2005 Session 5: Metadata: View from the Trenches

  2. RLG – Where Museums, Libraries, and Archives Intersect

  3. Often an orderly process

  4. Sometimes a bit more confusing

  5. And sometimes things go wrong

  6. With disastrous outcomes

  7. RLG Cultural Materials – Where Museum, Library, and Archival Metadata Collide • Many types of contributors • Many different reasons for metadata creation • Many different practices • Minimal susceptibility to outside influence

  8. RLG Cultural Materials 101 • Alliance formed in 1999 • Resource available since Nov. 2001 • Today the resource contains 107 collections from 34 contributors • 230,000 works, representing 3/4M digital items • Available by institutional subscription

  9. What do contributors contribute? • We thought we’d get a number of standards and practices • What we really get • So what do we do? • And why?…

  10. Data conversion for Cultural Materials • Analyze the data, • Convert to XML, if necessary • Derive a URL list for image collection from the descriptive records and processing the images • Map to the Cultural Materials schema and creating a specification • Convert via XSLT • Verify against the schema, image validation

  11. Conversion objectives • Normalize work types • Derive item-level information • Separate places, names, and topics • Atomize data • Provide sort and display versions

  12. Challenges (1 of 3) • Normalization of required elements • Inheritance from collection- or series-level information • Subjects example 1 • Jackson County (Ind.) • Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826--Poetry • Land titles--Kentucky--Shelby County • Subjects example 2 • cloth, emery • Bath, Maine, manufacturing • Cook, Rymes & Co., Agents • Chase, Geo. W., Agent

  13. Challenges (2 of 3) • Atomizing data example 1 – EAD <unittitle> Poston, Ariz.--Florence Mori, evacuee of Japanese ancestry at this War Relocation Authority center, taking part in this CBS broadcast. Chet Huntley of the CBS is directing the program. Photographer: Clark, Fred. Poston, Arizona. 5/26/42 • Atomizing data example 2 <medium> • Photograph of painting, b/w, 16.5 x 11.5 cm. • Photograph of print: Engraving, b/w, 13 x 11 cm. • Print: Engraving, color, 11.5 x 9 cm. • Photograph of drawing, b/w • Atomizing data example 3 <who> Thomson, William, Professor (1824-1907) Sir William Thomson from 1866 and Ist Baron Kelvin of Largs from 1892 better known as Lord Kelvin

  14. Challenges (3 of 3) • Deriving sort forms • Boudreau, James C., Florence H. Fitch and Elmer A. Stephan • Snow, Bonnie E.; Froehlich, Hugo B. • Woolworth, Ainsworth & Co. • Perry, Walter Scott, et. al., eds. • Dealing with inconsistency • "1867, Jan." • 1875-01

  15. Ideal data • Standards-based XML • Use of data value standards indicated • Granular, differentiated – and labeled! • Consistency

  16. Descriptive Metadata Guidelineshttp://www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID=214 “[These guidelines] can inform and be used by a wide range of projects that depend on good metadata. [It] begins with defining terminology, then moves on to guidelines for data fields and structure, data content and values, data formats, and core descriptive fields … the section on data conversion for RLG Cultural Materials … is a fascinating look at the kinds of metadata transformations that are required to create a sensible union catalog. This document is chock-full of excellent advice, useful examples, and hard-won metadata wisdom. It should be required reading for anyone working with metadata." - Roy Tennant in Current Cites, January 2005

  17. It can be confusing at times….

  18. It’s a trip worth taking together

More Related