Metadata

Collection Level Description

Collection description working group

Work in progress

12 October 1998

Edited by: Andy Powell, UKOLN

Introduction

The Hybrid Libraries and Large Scale Resource Discovery (Clumps) projects [1] within phase 3 of the eLib programme [2] have a pressing need to begin describing 'collections' of resources. A longer discussion of the meaning of 'collection' is given below. For now, let us assume that the kinds of things that these projects want to describe include collections of physical items, collections of digital surrogates of physical items, collections of other digital items and catalogues of such collections.

Collection descriptions will be used to:

allow users to discover and locate collections of interest
allow users to perform searches across multiple collections in a controlled way
allow software to perform such tasks on behalf of users based on known user preferences.

Timescales are short. The eLib phase 3 projects have already started and have an almost immediate requirement to begin describing various collections.

On September 2 1998 a group of representatives of clumps and hybrid libraries projects, library automation software suppliers and other interested parties attended a UKOLN initiated meeting at the British Library in London to discuss the issues associated with collection description [3]. One of the outcomes of the meeting was the formation of a small 'working group'.

The collection description working group

The collection description working group consisted of Verity Brack (RIDING), Dan Brickley (ROADS), Matthew Dovey (MALIBU and Music Libraries Online), David Kay (Fretwell Downing Informatics), Dennis Nicholson (CAIRNS) and Andy Powell (UKOLN). It was later joined by Graeme Stewart (CAIRNS). The group was asked to develop a proposal for a core set of collection description attributes, the primary intentions being:

that this set could form the basis of software and systems being developed within eLib phase 3 projects
that we might prevent some duplication of effort across eLib phase 3 projects.

This report describes the progress of the working group so far. It proposes a core set of collection description attributes and lists some of the issues associated with it. Where necessary it lists those issues where we feel further work is required. The key open issues are:

What grouping mechanisms and sub-structure need to be associated with the proposed attribute set in order that we can successfully model collections and their owners, access to collections and associated resource operators and the ownership and rights issues that will be associated with both of these and with individual items within a collection?
How do we accommodate other collection description schemes, such as conspectus [22], within the proposed attribute set?
What kinds of dates are useful in the context of discovery of collections?
What does 'coverage', particularly 'temporal coverage' mean in the context of collections?

These and other issues are discussed in more detail below. The working group welcomes comments on these issues and any other aspect of this report. Comments should be sent to the lis-elib-tech@mailbase.ac.uk mailing list in the first instance.

A note on process

The group has worked by email, using the collection-wg@ukoln.ac.uk mailing list. An archive of the list is available for reference purposes [4].

In parallel with the working group, UKOLN have been editing an eLib supporting study entitled 'Collection Level Description - a review of existing practice' [5]. Early draft versions of this study provided context for some of our discussions.

The group considered 5 existing description formats in detail:

We used these to form the basis of our proposed list of collection description attributes (see below). The group has developed an enumerated list of collection types - essentially a taxonomy for characterising digital and real world collections and catalogues. The group has also created several sample descriptions of real collections using the proposed attribute set (see below). This has been very useful as a way of raising issues.

In general the group has aimed to:

re-use as much as possible from existing work, standards and metadata formats
keep things as simple as possible
retain compatability with other formats, particularly the Dublin Core
flag those issues that require further work.

The working group has maintained a Web site [11]. This will continue to be updated as issues are discussed.

What is a collection?

This is perhaps best answered by refering to the proposed list of collection types (below) or by reading the 'What is a collection?' sections of the eLib supporting study. Essentially the working group has considered all of the following as being types of collections that may need describing by eLib phase 3 projects:

Internet catalogues (e.g. Yahoo)
Subject gateways (e.g. SOSIG, OMNI, ADAM, EEVL, etc.)
Library, museum and archival catalogues
Web indexes (e.g. Alta Vista)
Collections of text, images, sounds, datasets, software, other material or combinations of these (this includes databases, CD-ROMs and collections of Web resources)
Collections of events (e.g. the Follett Lecture Series)
Library and museum collections
Archives
Other collections of physical items
Digital archives

It is worth noting that the list includes collections of physical items and collections of digital items. In some cases the digital items are surrogates of phyical items, in others the digital items are the primary (only) manifestation of the item. It is also worth noting that some collections are actually catalogues (metadata) for other collections. For example, a library catalogue typically describes the items in one or more collections within a library. Finally, it is worth noting that collections are often composed of other collections.

Proposed collection description attribute set

The list of core collection description attributes proposed by the group follows:

The set currently contains 22 attributes. 12 of these are taken from the Dublin Core.
As with the Dublin Core, all attributes are optional and repeatable.
This is an abstract list of attributes, independant of any particular syntax that may be used in implementations.
Software is expected to use the short 'labels' to refer to these attributes. The longer 'names' are for human consumption.
In the table below, attributes are grouped into those that describe the collection itself, those that describe access to the collection and those that describe any terms and conditions associated with the collection. There is no significance in this ordering other than it helps to improve the readibility of this list. The working group is considering the issues associated with attribute grouping and sub-structure separately.

Name	Label	Semantics
Collection
Title	Title	The name given to the collection, usually by the Admin, Owner or Publisher.
Subject and Keywords	Subject	The topic of the collection. Typically, subject will be expressed as keywords or phrases that describe the subject or content of the collection. The use of controlled vocabularies and formal classification schemes is encouraged.
Description	Description	A textual description of the content of the collection.
Collection Administrator	Admin	The person or organization responsible for collection administration (administrative contact).
Collection Owner	Owner	The person or organization that owns the collection.
Publisher	Publisher	The entity responsible for making the collection available in its present form, such as a publishing house, a university department, or a corporate entity.
Date	Date	A date associated with the creation or availability of the collection. Recommended best practice is defined in a profile of ISO 8601 [12] that includes (among others) dates of the forms YYYY and YYYY-MM-DD. In this scheme, for example, the date 1994-11-05 corresponds to November 5, 1994.
Language	Language	The language of the intellectual content of the collection. Recommended best practice is defined in RFC 1766 [13].
Source	Source	Information about the resources from which the collection is derived.
Coverage	Coverage	The spatial or temporal characteristics of the intellectual content of the collection. Spatial coverage refers to a physical region (e.g., celestial sector) using place names or coordinates (e.g., longitude and latitude). Temporal coverage refers to what the collection is about rather than when it was created or made available (the latter belonging in the Date element). Temporal coverage is typically specified using named time periods (e.g., neolithic) or the same date/time format as recommended for the Date element.
Relation	Relation	An identifier of a second resource or collection and its relationship to the present collection. This element is used to express linkages among related resources and collections of resources.
Collection Type	Type	The category of the collection. For the sake of interoperability, Type should be selected from an enumerated list.
Other notes	Notes	Specialized information that cannot be accommodated in any of the other areas.
Collection Purpose and Policy	Purpose	A statement of why the collection is offered and the origin and lineage of the items held. This attribute may also describe any collection policy associated with the collection.
Access
Collection Identifier	Identifier	A string or number used to uniquely identify the collection. Examples for networked collections include URLs and URNs (when implemented). Note that protocol specific URLs for Z39.50 (RFC-2056) [14], LDAP (RFC-2255) [15] and Whois++ ( draft-ietf-asid-whois-url-02.txt) [16] may be used to provide host, port, database and other information ncessary for connecting to network accessible collections.
Access Times	AccessTimes	Time ranges for mandatory or preferred access of service.
Physical Location and Access	Location	If there is physical access to the collection, this attribute gives information about its location, for example a postal address. This attribute may also be used to provide related information, such as wheelchair access.
Terms and conditions
Access Policy	AccessPolicy	A description of any constraints or legal prerequisites for accessing the collection or its component items.
Charging Policy	ChargingPolicy	A description of any charging mechanism in place, an identifier such a description or an identifier that links to a service providing such a description for the collection.
Rights Management	Rights	A rights management statement, an identifier that links to a rights management statement, or an identifier that links to a service providing information about rights management for the collection.
Use Constraints	UseConstraints	A description of any constraints or legal prerequisites for using the collection or its component items. This includes any use constraints applied to assure the protection of privacy or intellectual property and any other special restrictions or limitations on using the collection.
Required Collection Logo	Logo	The URI of a logo associated with the collection or the Owner of the collection. If present, this logo must be displayed by any service that provides access to the collection.

Note that the Admin, Owner and Publisher attributes provide information about organizations and/or people. The group has decided that, for the time being, these attributes should take simple text values (e.g. a name, a name and email address or a name and phone number). In the longer term it might be sensible to develop structured values for these attributes, perhaps based on vCard [17].

It is likely that users of this attribute set will want to refine the semantics of several of the attributes in order that they become more useful. Two examples are the Date and Relation attributes (see below). Recent work on the DC data model indicates that there are at least two kinds of qualifiers. The first kind modify (typically refine) the semantics of the element. These have been refered to as TYPE qualifiers in the past. The second kind say something about the value (typically that the value is drawn from some enumerated list or external scheme). These have been refered to as SCHEME qualifiers in the past. The working group have not considered the implications of qualification for this attribute set in any detail.

A proposed list of collection types

For interoperability reasons there is some benefit in selecting the value for the Type attribute from an enumerated list. A proposed list is given here together with some examples. The emboldened 'types' form an enumerated list of collection types. Note that this list is arranged hierarchically with each Type written using a dotted notation. Reading left to right, each component of the name is a specialisation of the type of collection.

Collection

Collection.Catalogue

A manually created catalogue.

Collection.Catalogue.Internet

A manually created catalogue of Internet resources.
Examples: Yahoo

Collection.Catalogue.Internet.Subject: A manually created catalogue of Internet resources in a particular subject area. Often refered to as a Subject Based Information Gateway (SBIG) or subject service.
Examples: SOSIG, OMNI, ADAM, EEVL

Collection.Catalogue.Library

A library catalogue (OPAC).
Examples: Univesity of Bath OPAC, COPAC

Collection.Catalogue.Museum

A museum catalogue.
Examples:

Collection.Catalogue.Archive

An archival finding aid.
Examples:

Collection.Index

An automatically (robot) generated index.

Collection.Index.Internet

An automatically (robot) generated index of Internet resources. Often refered to as a Web Index or a Web search engine.
Examples: Alta Vista, Lycos

Collection.Index.Internet.Subject: An automatically (robot) generated index of Internet resources based on the contents of a subject service catalogue.
Examples:

Collection.Text

A collection of items that are primarily words for reading. For example - books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre "text".
Examples: Mailbase, Internet Library of Early Journals

Collection.Image

A collection of items that are primarily symbolic visual representations other than text. For example - images and photographs of physical objects, paintings, prints, drawings, other images and graphics, animations and moving pictures, film, diagrams, maps, musical notation. Note that "image" may include both electronic and physical representations.
Examples:

Collection.Sound

A collection of items that are primarily audio. For example - music, speech, recorded sounds.
Examples: Voices from the Dust Bowl

Collection.Dataset

A collection of items that primarily consist of structured information encoded in lists, tables, databases, etc., which will normally be in a format available for direct machine processing. For example - spreadsheets, databases, GIS data, midi data. Note that collections of items that are primarily unstructured numbers and words will normally be considered to be type "Collection.Text".
Examples: Digimap

Collection.Software

A software repository.
Examples: HENSA, SunSite,

Collection.Interactive

A collection of resources which require interaction from the user to be understood, executed, or experienced. For example - forms on web pages, applets, multimedia learning objects, chat services, virtual reality.
Examples:

Collection.Event

A collection of non-persistent, time-based occurences.
Examples: The Follett Lecture Series

Collection.PhysicalObject

A collection of three dimensional objects or substances which are not primarily text or image or one of the other types listed here. For example - people, computers, sculptures or wheat (!) . Note that collections of digital representations of, or surrogates for, these things should use "Collection.Image", "Collection.Text" or one of the other collection types listed here.

Collection.Library

A library collection (books, journals, etc.).
Examples:

A collection of books connected with local history, celebrities, industries, etc., or on a certain subject or period, or gathered for some particular reason, in a library which is general in character.
Examples: The Pitman Collection
Collection.Library.Subject: 1) A complete library: a special library is an example of a subject collection which is a complete library. 2) A subject collection within a library: a collection of material on a particular subject kept together within a larger general collection, and usually with a distinct name. 3) A dispersed collection within a library: a collection of material on a single subject, but not kept together and not referred to by a specific name.
Examples:
Collection.Library.Form: A collection of library materials shelved by form.
Examples:
Collection.Library.User: A collection arranged specifically for a particular group of users.
Examples:
Collection.Library.Database: A collection of online databases or networked CD-ROMs. These collections will normally be linked by subject, as well as by form.
Examples:

Collection.Museum

A museum collection (artefacts, etc.).
Examples:

Collection.Archive

An archive is a whole which documents the life and work of an institution or individual, which has been retained in its original working order and is of known provenance.
Examples: National Fairground Archive

Collection.DigitalArchive

A collection of digital objects stored for preservation purposes (also called a repository).
Examples: The Wilfred Owen Multimedia Digital Archive

Note: the current definitions for some of these are unsatisfactory and need improvement.

Relationships

There are a number of possible relationships between different collections and between collections and other resources. These relationships are described using the Relation attribute. Dublin Core currently defines the following relationship types:

IsPartOf
HasPart
IsVersionOf
HasVersion
IsFormatOf
HasFormat
References
IsReferencedBy
IsBasedOn
IsBasisFor

See the Dublin Core Relations Working Group draft report [18] for more information.

The working group propose the use of these relationship types (noting that IsPartOf and HasPart look to be most useful in the context of collection description) adding two new ones:

IsCataloguedBy

the URL or name of a second collection that is the catalogue for, or contains a catalogue record for, the current collection
IsCatalogueFor

the URL or name of a second collection for which the current collection is the catalogue

Note that in the examples below these relation types are embedded into the value of the Relation attribute, followed by the identifier (or title) of the related collection or item.

Implementation issues

As mentioned above, this is an abstract attribute set. The group has not considered in any detail how the attributes may be implemented in real systems. In particular no recommendations are being made as to database structures or data types for any of the attributes.

It is expected that this attribute set may be implemented in a variety of ways, including but not limited to:

using a ROADS database [19]
using the Resource Description Framework (RDF) [20]
by incorporating the attributes in library automation software
by embedding the attributes into HTML META tags.

The use of protocol specific URLs has several advantages. It limits the number of attributes required and means that we are unlikely to have to expand the attribute set in the future as new protocols become available (assuming that the new protocols have associated URL formats). However, it is anticipated that implementations may choose to hide these URLs behind the user-interface, instead presenting more familiar protocol, host, port, database attributes to end users.

Finally it should be noted that the working group make no recommendations about how attribute qualifiers (described above) should be implemented. Embedding the qualifier into the attribute value, as is done for the Relation attribute in the examples below, is a simple possibility.

Unresolved issues

The working group is currently considering a number of open issues. A full list of these is maintained on the Web pages [21].

Attribute grouping and sub-structure

In order to usefully model:

collections and their owners
access to collections and the resource operators who provide that access
the ownership and rights issues associated with collections, access to collections and items within collections

we need to be able to structure the proposed attribute set in some way. Individual collections may be made accessible in a variety of ways. Potententially, this access may be provided by a number of different resource operators (service providers). Ownership, rights and access constraints may be associated with the collection itself and, separately, with each method of accessing the collection. The working group is currently considering how the proposed attribute set can best be structured in order that we can model this.

Conspectus

The current list of attributes doesn't explicitly have a space for conspectus [22] information. There are four options:

live without this kind of information
add a free text conspectus attribute
try to formally model conspectus information using several attributes
put conspectus information into a Subject attribute using a SCHEME qualifier to indicate that the description has been constructed using the conspectus methodology.

There is currently no agreement on how best to handle conspectus. However, CAIRNS have a requirement to use conspectus and consider that:

the hierarchy of conspectus needs to be extractable from the data in a reliable way
the collection level indicator should be stored somewhere
CAIRNS will require structured attributes for conspectus and a 'summary subject description' in the Subject attribute

The working group hope to consider how best to meet these requirements in the near future.

What does Date mean?

Date is currently very vague (as per the Dublin Core). We probably need to associate one or more particular dates with a collection? Dublin Core has developed the following list of date types:

Created
DataGathered
Valid
Issued
Available
Accepted
Acquired

However, it is not clear that these are useful in the context of (discovery of) collections?

Web pages about physical collections

Some physical collections may have a Web page or set of Web pages that are about the collection but that do not constitute a digital surrogate for the collection. The Identifier attribute does not appear to be a sensible place to put such a URL. One possible solution is to simply add the URL into the Notes attribute as plain text. A more structured alternative would be to use the Relation attribute, indicating an 'IsBasedOn' relation type.

IsCataloguedBy relations

The proposed 'IsCataloguedBy' relation type does not differentiate between those collections that have a single entry in a catalogue and those collections for which every item within the collection is catalogued. The working group has not yet agreed if these two cases need to be handled separately.

Coverage

What does temporal coverage mean in the context of collections?

Abstracting and indexing services may use coverage to indicate the date of publication of items in collection. For example, the 1997 ISI collection.
A library might use it to indicate date of accession of items in collection. For example, the pre-1920 collection.
Other collections may use it to indicate the temporal coverage of items in the collection. For example, a collection of items about World War I (1914-1918).

Agent

Dublin Core currently has separate Creator, Contributor and Publisher elements. However, recent work on the DC data model may lead to the collapse of these into a single Agent element - using a TYPE qualifier to indicate different kinds of Agents. It may be sensible for the proposed collection description attribute set to use a single Agent attribute in place of the current Admin, Owner and Publisher attributes.

Examples

Several examples of the use of the proposed attribute set follow. Note that these have been developed for demonstration purposes and may not provide completely accurate descriptions of particular collections.

Title             : COPAC
Subject           : 
Description       : COPAC gives access to the online catalogues of some of
                    the largest university research libraries in the UK and
                    Ireland. Most COPAC records represent books and
                    periodicals (but not periodical contents). Other
                    materials include videos, printed and recorded music,
                    and electronic materials.
Admin             : copac@mcc.ac.uk
Owner             : Manchester Information Datasets and Associated Services
Publisher         : Manchester Computing, University of Manchester
Date              : 
Language          : en-uk
Source            : Consortium of University Research Libraries
Coverage          : Cambridge University Library 
Coverage          : Dublin: Trinity College Library 
Coverage          : Edinburgh University Library 
Coverage          : Glasgow University Library 
Coverage          : Leeds University Library 
Coverage          : London: University College Library 
Coverage          : London: Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine Library 
Coverage          : London: University of London Library 
Coverage          : University of Manchester Library 
Coverage          : Nottingham University Library 
Coverage          : Oxford: Bodleian Library and other libraries 
Type              : Collection.Catalogue.Library
Notes             : 
Purpose           : 
Location          : 
Rights            :
UseConstraints    : 
AccessTimes       : Any
Identifier        : http://cs6400.mcc.ac.uk/copac/
AccessPolicy      : Open
Identifier        : telnet://copac.ac.uk/
Identifier        : z39.50s://z3950.copac.ac.uk:2100/COPAC
ChargingPolicy    : Free
Logo              : http://cs6400.mcc.ac.uk/copac/icons/copac.gif

Title             : Digimap
Subject           : Ordnance Survey; OS; maps; digital map data
Description       : DIGIMAP is exploring ways of delivering Ordnance Survey 
                    map data to Institutes of Higher Education in the
                    United Kingdom. Based in the Data Library at the
                    University of Edinburgh, the project involves researchers
                    and service developers as well as map library
                    and library staff from six UK academic insititutions.
Admin             : P.Burnhill@ed.ac.uk
Owner             : Data Library, University of Edinburgh
Publisher         : University of Edinburgh
Date              : 
Language          : 
Source            : Ordnance Survey
Coverage          : 
Type              : Collection.Dataset
Type              : Collection.Image
Notes             : 
Purpose           : 
Rights            : http://digimap.ed.ac.uk:8081/service/copyright.html
UseConstraints    : http://digimap.ed.ac.uk:8081/service/copyright.html
Location          : 
Identifier        : http://digimap.ed.ac.uk:8081/
AccessTimes       : Any
AccessPolicy      : Access limited to staff and students at:
                    University of Aberdeen Queen Mother Library
                    University of Edinburgh Main Library 
                    University of Glasgow Library
                    University of Newcastle Robertson Library 
                    University of Oxford Bodleian Library Map Library
                    University of Reading Department of Geography Map Library 
                    Registration is required.
ChargingPolicy    : Free
Logo              : http://digimap.ed.ac.uk:8081/ui-graphics/digi_logo_3.jpeg

Title             : Follett Lecture Series
Subject           : electronic library; digital library; information technology
Description       : This series of lectures developed from an idea put
                    forward by members of the JISC's Follett Implementation
                    Group on Information Technology, with the aim of
                    raising awareness of international developments and
                    issues relating to the electronic library, and stimulating
                    further discussion. Beginning in May 1994 with a paper
                    given at the University of Aston by Clifford Lynch, then
                    of the University of California, the final lecture took
                    place at the University of Leicester in March 1997 with a
                    presentation by Peter Graham of Rutgers University
                    Library. The series featured 11 speakers giving a
                    total of 13 lectures. Venues ranged across the United
                    Kingdom, including Glasgow and Edinburgh, Derry City,
                    Cardiff, Leeds, Manchester, London, Birmingham and Leicester. 
Admin             : 
Owner             : 
Publisher         : 
Date              : 
Language          : 
Source            : 
Coverage          : United Kingdom, 1994-1997
Relation          : 
Type              : Collection.Event
Notes             : 
Logo              : 
Logo              : 
Purpose           : 
Rights            :
UseConstraints    : 
Location          : 
Identifier        : 
AccessTimes       : 
AccessPolicy      : 
ChargingPolicy    :

Title             : The Pitman Collection
Subject           : shorthand; phonetic alphabets; Initial Teaching Alphabet;
                    ITA; Pitman family;
Description       : A collection of printed, manuscript, and audiovisual
                    material and artefacts collected by Sir Isaac Pitman
                    and his grandson, Sir James Pitman.  The collection has
                    been added to by the Pitman Company.  It includes over
                    7300 catalogued monographs and serials on the history of
                    shorthand plus a small number of uncatalogued manuscripts
                    in shorthand.  The collection also includes 75 feet of
                    material on the Initial Teaching Alphabet (ITA), 50%
                    monographs, the rest artefacts, offprints, correspondence,
                    etc. - all unsorted - plus 18 filing cabinets of archival
                    material.
Admin             : Keith Jones - k.e.jones@bath.ac.uk
Owner             : University of Bath Library
Publisher         : University of Bath
Date              : 
Language          : en-uk
Source            : Pitman family
Source            : Pitman Company
Source            : Library of the Initial Teaching Alphabet Foundation
Coverage          : Predominantly UK - 19th and 20th century.
Relation          : HasPart Initial Teaching Alphabet Collection
Relation          : IsCataloguedBy http://www.bath.ac.uk/Library/webcat/
Type              : Collection.Library.Special
Notes             : Transferred to the University of Bath in 1970.
Purpose           : 
Rights            : (c) University of Bath
UseConstraints    : 
Location          : Library and Learning Centre
                    University of Bath
                    Bath
                    BA2 7AY
                    UK
Identifier        : 
AccessTimes       : 
AccessPolicy      : By arrangement with the University of Bath Library.
ChargingPolicy    : Free
Logo              :

Title             : Social Science Information Gateway
Title             : SOSIG
Subject           : Economics; Development; Law; Education;
                    Management; Accountancy; Business;
                    Environmental Issues; Philosophy; Demography ;
                    Politics; International Relations;
                    Ethnology; Social Anthropology; Psychology;
                    Feminism; Social Science General; Methodology;
                    Geography; Social Welfare; Community; Disability;
                    Education; Sociology; Government; Military Science;
                    Statistics; Demography 
Description       : SOSIG is an online catalogue of thousands of
                    high quality Internet resources relevant to social
                    science education and research. Every resource
                    has been selected and described by a librarian or
                    subject specialist. 
Admin             : sosig-info@bris.ac.uk
Owner             : ILRT, University of Bristol
Publisher         : University of Bristol
Date              : 
Language          : en-uk
Source            : 
Coverage          : 
Type              : Collection.Catalogue.Internet.Subject
Notes             : 
Purpose           : http://sosig.ac.uk/desire/collect.html
Location          : 
Rights            : 
UseConstraints    : 
Identifier        : http://www.sosig.ac.uk/
Identifier        : whois++://sosig.ac.uk:8237/
Identifier        : z39.50s://edward.ilrt.bris.ac.uk:2102/Sosig
AccessTimes       : Any
AccessPolicy      : Request check of centroid before querying Whois++ server
ChargingPolicy    : Free for non-commercial and educational use
Logo              : http://www.sosig.ac.uk/images/sos.gif

Title             : Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert
                    Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection
Subject           : migrant work camps; california; folk song; folk culture;
                    US; united states; america
Description       : The collection consists of approximately 18 hours of
                    audio recordings (436 titles on 122 recording discs),
                    28 graphic images (prints and negatives), and 1.5 linear
                    feet of print materials including administrative
                    correspondence, field notes, recording logs, song text
                    transcriptions, dust jackets from the recording discs
                    with handwritten notes, news clippings, publications,
                    and ephemera. The online presentation provides access to
                    371 audio titles, 23 graphic images, a sampling
                    of the dust jackets, and all the print material in the
                    collection. Covering a period between 1940 and 1941, this
                    collection documents the lives of Dust Bowl migrants
                    living in Farm Security Administration (FSA) camps in
                    California.
Admin             : ndlpcoll@loc.gov
Owner             : 
Publisher         : Library of Congress
Date              : 
Language          : en-us
Source            : 
Coverage          : California, USA, 1940-1941
Relation          : IsPartOf http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/
Type              : Collection.Sound
Notes             : 
Purpose           : 
Rights            : http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tscpyrt.html
UseConstraints    : 
Location          : Library of Congress, Washington, DC, USA
Identifier        : http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tshome.html
AccessTimes       : Any
AccessPolicy      : Open
ChargingPolicy    : Free
Logo              :

Title             : The Wilfred Owen Multimedia Digital Archive
Title             : WOMDA
Subject           : First World War; WWI; Wilfred Owen
Description       : The Wilfred Owen Multimedia Digital Archive contains a
                    host of material relating to the First World War
                    poet Wilfred Owen, in particular, and a large amount of
                    related background material on the War in general . It
                    is not the intention of the authors of this site to
                    canonize Owen above the other poets of the First World
                    War, rather the contents of the archive are a reflection
                    of the proximity of material and advice on Owen
                    available to the authors.  The archive contains digital
                    facsimilies of Owen's original manuscripts, audio
                    interviews with veterans, letters written by Owen,
                    contemorary video clips, contemporary photographs
                    and modern video and photographs.
Admin             : paul.groves@oucs.ox.ac.uk
Owner             : Humanities Computing Unit, Oxford University Computing
                    Services
Publisher         : University of Oxford
Date              : 
Language          : en-uk
Source            : Imperial War Museum
Source            : Wilfred Owen Estate
Source            : Harry Ransom Research Centre, University of Texas at Austin
Source            : British Library
Source            : Public Records Office
Coverage          : 1914-1918
Type              : Collection.DigitalArchive
Type              : Collection.Text
Type              : Collection.Image
Type              : Collection.Sound
Notes             : 
Purpose           : http://firth.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/jtap/help.html#whatcontain
Location          : 
Rights            : http://firth.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/jtap/copyright.html
UseConstraints    : http://firth.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/jtap/copyright.html
Identifier        : http://firth.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/jtap/
AccessTimes       : Any
AccessPolicy      : Open
ChargingPolicy    : Free
Logo              : http://firth.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/jtap/images/womda-title.gif

Title             : National Fairground Archive
Subject           : fairground; showmen; fairs; history 
Description       : The NFA is a unique collection of photographic, printed, manuscript and
                  : audiovisual material covering all aspects of the culture of travelling 
                  : showpeople, their organisation as a community, their social history and 
                  : everyday life; and the artefacts and machinery of fairgrounds. There are 
                  : over 30,000 images in the photographic collection, in addition to audio
                  : and video material, journals and magazines, and nearly 300 monographs. 
                  : The collection also includes a unique body of fairground ephemera 
                  : (programmes, handbills, posters, charters and proclamations, plans and 
                  : drawings).
Admin             : Dr. Vanessa Toulmin, NFA Assistant Director; fairgound@shef.ac.uk
Owner             : National Fairground Archive
Publisher         : University Library, University of Sheffield
Date              : 1994
Language          : en-uk
Source            : Showmen's Guild of Great Britain
Source            : Fairground Association of Great Britain
Source            : UK fairground societies
Source            : fairground families  
Coverage          : United Kingdom; 18th century - present
Relation          : HasPart Bellhouse Collection
Relation          : HasPart Harry Lee Collection
Relation          : HasPart Jack Leeson Collection
Relation          : HasPart Shufflebottom Collection
Relation          : HasPart R A Taylor Collection
Relation          : HasPart Tucker Collection
Relation          : HasPart Waddington Collection
Relation          : IsCataloguedBy 
Type              : Collection.Archive
Type              : Collection.Image
Type              : Collection.Text
Type              : Collection.Sound
Notes             : Web pages at http://www.shef.ac.uk/~nfa/
Purpose           : 
Rights            : (c) National Fairground Archive
UseConstraints    : 
Location          : Main Library,
                    University of Sheffield,
                    Western Bank,
                    Sheffield
                    S10 2TN
                    UK
Identifier        : 
AccessTimes       : Monday to Friday, from 9.30 to 1.00 and from 2.00 to 4.30
AccessPolicy      : Appointments must be made in advance
ChargingPolicy    : 
Logo              : http://www.shef.ac.uk/~nfa/logo.gif

Future work

The working group intend to continue developing this attribute set, hopefully resolving the current list of open issues and any others that arise. It may be sensible to re-evaluate our proposed list of attributes against a wider range of existing metadata formats. We also hope to begin considering implementation issues, perhaps developing one or two sample implementations in order to demonstrate use of the attribute set.

References

eLib Programme project details
<URL:http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/elib/projects/>
The eLib Programme
<URL:http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/elib/>
Collection Description meeting minutes, British Library, 2 September 1998
<URL:http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/cld/meetings/1998-09-02/>
collection-wg@ukoln.ac.uk mailing list archive
<URL:http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/site/mail-archives/collection-wg/>
Collection Level Description - a review of existing practice (an eLib supporting study, draft version)
<URL:http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/cld/study/toc/>
Dublin Core
>URL:http://purl.oclc.org/metadata/dublin_core/>
GILS
<URL:http://www.gils.net/index.html>
ROADS SERVICE template
<URL:http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/roads/templates/service.html>
WASRV
<URL:http://www.bell-labs.com/mailing-lists/wasrv/>
ISAD(G)
<URL:http://www.archives.ca/ica/cds/isad(g)e.html>
UKOLN Collection Description Web pages
<URL:http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/cld/>
W3C Date and Time Formats
<URL:http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-datetime>
RFC 1766 - Tags for the Identification of Languages
<URL:http://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/computing/internet/rfc/rfc1766.txt>
RFC 2056 - Uniform Resource Locators for Z39.50
<URL:http://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/computing/internet/rfc/rfc2056.txt>
RFC 2255 - The LDAP URL Format
<URL:http://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/computing/internet/rfc/rfc2255.txt>
WHOIS++ URL Specification
<URL:http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-asid-whois-url-02.txt>
vCard
<URL:http://www.imc.org/pdi/>
Dublin Core Relations Working Group draft report
<URL:http://purl.oclc.org/metadata/dublin_core/wrelationdraft.html>
ROADS
<URL:http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/roads/>
Resource Description Framework (RDF)
<URL:http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-rdf-syntax/>
Collection description working group issues list
<URL:http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/cld/attributes/issues/>
Conspectus
<URL:http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/cld/study/collection/conspectus/>

Working group members: Verity Brack, Dan Brickley, Matthew Dovey, David Kay, Dennis Nicholson, Andy Powell, Graeme Stewart
Edited by: Andy Powell
Last updated: 12-Oct-1998
Version: 1.0

[Collection Level Description] [Metadata] [UKOLN]