# Presentation: 792814

## Creating rich shareable metadata: The DLF Aquifer MODS implementation guidelines

- Sarah L. Shreeves
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- ALA Annual – Washington, D.C.
- June 25 2007

## Outline

- Context – DLF and Aquifer
- Guidelines
- What is Shareable metadata?
- Guidelines
- What are we working on now?

- June 25, 2007

## What is the Digital Library Federation?

- What is the Digital Library Federation?

- ... an international association of libraries and allied institutions.
**Mission:**
- to enable new research and scholarship of its members, students, scholars, lifelong learners, and the general public by developing an international network of digital libraries.

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## DLF Aquifer Initiativehttp://www.diglib.org/aquifer/

- DLF Aquifer Initiative_[http://](http://www.diglib.org/aquifer/)__[www.diglib.org](http://www.diglib.org/aquifer/)__[/aquifer/](http://www.diglib.org/aquifer/)_

- Purpose is to promote effective use of distributed digital library content for teaching, learning, and research in the area of American culture and life.
- Bringing distributed content together and pushing it out to scholars and researchers
- Awarded $816,000 from the Mellon Foundation for *DLF Aquifer Development for Interoperability Across Scholarly Repositories: American Social History Online*
- Initial aggregation at: _[http://quod.lib.umich.edu/a/aquifer/](http://quod.lib.umich.edu/a/aquifer/)_

- June 25, 2007

## Currently 230,340 MODS records from 5 institutions

- Currently 230,340 MODS records from 5 institutions

- June 25, 2007

## Background

- OAI PMH allows metadata to be harvested from multiple data providers
- Usually metadata is brought together into aggregations (like OAIster)
- OAI PMH requires use of simple Dublin Core but allows use of other metadata schemas
- Most data providers only provide Dublin Core; most aggregators only harvest Dublin Core

- June 25, 2007

## Difficulties in Building Services in Aggregations

- Difficulties in Building Services in Aggregations

- Use of Dublin Core often problematic
- Lack of semantic complexity
- Metadata authors often are not thinking about sharing metadata outside of their local contexts
- Metadata between different collections inconsistent
- Few user studies of aggregations
- Building browse, targeted search, facets, etc... has been very, very, very difficult for aggregators

- June 25, 2007

## What’s different about Aquifer’s American Social History Online?

- Only harvest MODS records and provide guidance for ‘shareable MODS records’
- Interoperability / middleware layer to integrate collections into local environments
- Course management system
- Portal with link to citation management
- Commercial search service
- Federated search
- User studies/end user engagement

- June 25, 2007

## DLF Aquifer Implementation Guidelines for Shareable MODS Records

- Developed by Aquifer Metadata WG
- Sarah L. Shreeves (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign): 2005 - (Chair 2005 – 2006)
- Jenn Riley (Indiana University): 2005 – (Chair 2007 -)
- Laura Akerman (Emory University): 2006 -
- John Chapman (University of Minnesota): 2005 -
- Melanie Feltner-Reichert (University of Tennessee): 2006 -
- Bill Landis (California Digital Library): 2005 -
- Tracy Meehleib (Library of Congress): 2006 -
- Elizabeth Milewicz (Emory University): 2005 - 2006
- David Reynolds (Johns Hopkins University): 2005 -
- Gary Shawver (New York University): 2005 –

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## DLF Aquifer Implementation Guidelines for Shareable MODS Records

- To help create rich, shareable metadata records that is consistent and coherent
- Meant for shared records, not local implementations
- Focused on humanities and cultural heritage materials
- Based on the *DLF / NSDL Best Practices for Shareable Metadata*
- _[http://www.diglib.org/aquifer/dlfmodsimplementationguidelines_finalnov2006.pdf](http://www.diglib.org/aquifer/dlfmodsimplementationguidelines_finalnov2006.pdf)_

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## What is shareable metadata?

- Is **quality** metadata (see Bruce and Hillmann)
- Promotes **search interoperability**
- “the ability to perform a search over diverse sets of metadata records and obtain meaningful results.” (Priscilla Caplan)
- Is **human understandable** outside of its local context
- Is **useful** outside of its local context
- Is **machine processable**

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**Notes:**
Bruce and Hillmann: completeness, accuracy, provenance, conformance to expectations, logical consistency and coherence, timeliness, and accessibility.

## Metadata as a view of a resource

- No monolithic one-size-fits-all metadata record
- The view might be different depending on *use* and *audience* as well as format, content, and context
- Content standard is a view
- Metadata standard is a view
- Vocabulary used is a view

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## Format of the Guidelines

- Summary of Requirements and Recommendations
- Definition from LC’s MODS User Guidelines
- Discussion of Use
- Examples
- Use by Aggregators
- Mapping to Dublin Core
- Relationship to DLF/NSDL Best Practices

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## Required elements

**<titleInfo><title>**
**<typeOfResource>**
**<originInfo>**** **and at least one date subelement with** ****keydate=“yes”**
**<language>**** **if language primary to resource
**<physicalDescription><digitalOrigin>**
**<physicalDescription><internetMediaType>**
**<subject>**** **if applicable
**<location><url usage=“primary display”>**
**<accessCondition type=“use and reproduction”>**
**<recordInfo><languageOfCataloging>**
**<recordInfo><languageTerm>**

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## Recommended elements

**<name><namePart>**
**<genre>**
**<abstract>**
**<tableOfContents> **if applicable
**<targetAudience> **if applicable
**<note> **if applicable
**<relatedItem> **if applicable
**<identifier>**
**<part> **if applicable

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## Optional elements

**<classification>**
**<extension>**

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## Levels of Adoption - Tied to user tasks

**Minimum for participation: Allows users to cite the resource**
**Minimum for doing anything useful: Allows users to perform basic searches and filtering**
**Allows more advanced functionality: Allows users to browse and group search results**
**Adopt all required guidelines (and some recommended): Allows users to perform more precise searches**
**Completely adopt all recommendations: Allows users to effectively evaluate resources**

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## Example – Level 3

**Title: Life Mask of Stephen A. Douglas**
**Name (authority=naf): Leonard Wells**
**	****Role: Sculptor**
**Type of Resource: three dimensional object**
**Genre: life masks**
**Genre: casts (sculpture)**
**Date created (w3cdtf keyDate="yes“): 1858 **
**Form authority=“gmd“: art original**
**InternetMediaType: image/jpeg**
**Subject: Douglas, Stephen Arnold 1813-1861**
**URL usage="primary display" access="object in context":http://images.library.uiuc.edu:8081/u?/tdc,252**
**AccessCondition type="useAndReproduction": Use of this public-domain resource is unrestricted.**

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## What else are we working on?

- Release of the level of adoptions
- MARC  MODS stylesheet
- Currently in testing
- Validation tool for MODS records against the full guidelines
- Still in development
- Also, Aquifer is interested in collections (from non-DLF institutions as well as DLF institutions) – contact Katherine Kott, Director of the Aquifer Initiative.

- June 25, 2007

## Contact Information

- Sarah Shreeves
- _[sshreeve@uiuc.edu](mailto:sshreeve@uiuc.edu)_
- 217.244.3877
- References:
- Bruce, T.R. and D.I. Hillmann. (2004) “The continuum of metadata quality: defining, expressing, exploiting,” in Metadata in Practice, Ed. by Diane Hillmann and Elaine Westbrooks. Chicago: ALA Editions.
- Tennant, R. (2004) “Metadata’s bitter harvest,” *Library Journal* 129, no.12. _[http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA434443.html](http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA434443.html)_
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License

- June 25, 2007