NISO Metasearch Initiative Collection Description Schema

Contents

• Introduction
• Vocabularies/Namespaces Used in this DCAP
• Collection Properties
• Subject Completeness Indicator Properties
• Encoding Schemes Used
• Administrative Metadata

Introduction

Note: This document presents full details of the application profile. For a summary view, see the NISO Metasearch Initiative Core Collection Description Schema Summary [NISOMICDS].

The NISO MI CD Schema is a Dublin Core Application Profile (DCAP). It is based closely on the Dublin Core Collection Description Application Profile (DC CD AP) [DCCDAP] which is being developed by the Dubin Core Collection Description Working Group.

A DC Application Profile describes the how the Dublin Core metadata standard is deployed within a metadata application or within a set of applications and services operating within some domain or community. A DCAP is constructed within the conceptual framework for DC metadata defined by the DCMI Abstract Model [DCAM]. Central to the DCAM is the concept that DC metadata is made up of simple statements about resources. Each of those simple statements references a property to assert the existence of a specific type of relationship between the subject resource and a second resource, referred to as a value. Statements about a single resource are made in groups known as descriptions; descriptions are typically used in functionally-related description sets; and those description sets are serialised as records.

So a DCAP specifies the set of terms used in the statements within a class of DC metadata description sets: it describes the properties that are used in those statements and how the use of those properties is constrained or adapted for the purposes of that application or domain.

In the case of the NISO MI CD Schema, the primary subject resource is the collection. While it permits the inclusion of descriptions of other related resources, the NISO MI CD Schema does not specify the properties and classes that may be referenced in descriptions of resources other than collections - with the exception of what are referred to as "Subject Completeness Indicators". A Subject Completeness Indicator is essentially a pair of attributes made up of a subject term and a level of completeness of the collection in that subject: within the framework of the DCMI Abstract Model it is treated as a distinct resource. So, this document describes:

• Firstly, the set of terms used in a particular class of DC metadata description sets. Specifically, it describes the set of terms used in description sets comprising:

  • a description of a collection (i.e. a "collection-level description", or "unitary finding aid" in the terminology of the Analytical Model of Collections and their Catalogues [AMCC])
  • a description of a "Subject Completeness Indicator" for a collection

• Secondly, how the terms in this set are deployed in this class of DC metadata descriptions.
  This includes requirements for the the occurrence of statements using a specified property, constraints on the types of value which are referenced in a statement using a specified property (vocabulary encoding schemes), and constraints on the datatypes of the value strings occurring in a statement using a specified property (syntax encoding schemes).

The terms description set, description, property, value, vocabulary encoding scheme, value representation, rich representation, value string, syntax encoding scheme, and related description are used in the sense they are used in the DCMI Abstract Model [DCAM].

The metadata terms referenced in the NISO MI CD Schema are drawn from the Dublin Core metadata vocabularies and also from other metadata vocabularies.

The NISO MI CD Schema is not a description of an XML format. There may be multiple bindings of the NISO MI CD SChema to XML and to other syntaxes.

Functional Requirements of the NISO Metasearch Collection Description Schema

The aim is that the NISO Metasearch Collection Description schema should support:

• the discovery of collections of potential interest using some common access points
• the identification of a known collection
• the selection of one or more collections from amongst a number of discovered collections
• the identification of the services that provide access to the collection

The Dublin Core Collection Description Application Profile (DC CD AP) Data Model

This schema is based closely on the Dublin Core Collection Description Application Profile (DC CD AP) [DCCDAP] which is being developed by the Dubin Core Collection Description Working Group.

The DC CD AP is based on an application data model which is derived from that described in An Analytical Model of Collections and their Catalogues [AMCC]. It differs from that model in adding a new entity type, Service.

In the Analytic Model relationships may carry attributes; in the DC CD AP, relationships are represented as simple properties and do not themselves carry attributes, so some of the expressivity of the model is lost in the metadata schema.

This version of the DC CD AP describes the use of properties to represent attributes of the collection and relationships between the collection and other entities. It does not describe how to represent properties of other entities in the model.

Differences between the NISO MI CD Schema and the DC CD AP

At the time of writing (2005-08-21), the NISO MI CD Schema differs from the DC CD AP (version 2005-08-21) in the following:

• the NISO MI CD Schema supports the description of both the collection and a "subject completeness indicator" for the collection
• it references an additional property used to describe the collection, cld:subjectCompleteness
• it references an additional class/vocabulary encoding scheme cld:SCI, used to constrain the value space of the cld:subjectCompleteness property
• it references two additional properties used to describe the subject completeness indicator, cld:completenessSubject and cld:completenessLevel
• it references an additional class/vocabulary encoding scheme cld:ConspectusLevel, used to constrain the value space of the cld:completenessLevel property
• it does not reference the gen:isLocatedAt property included in the DC CD AP

i.e. the data model for the NISO MI CD Schema i:

Vocabularies/Namespaces used in this DCAP

All references to properties and classes in DC metadata descriptions are made using URIs, In this document, Qualified Names of the form prefix ":" local-part are sometimes used as abbreviations for URIs which identify metadata terms. Prefixes are assumed to be associated with Namespace Names (URIs) as follows, and the corresponding URI for the term is constructed by concatenating the Namespace Name and the local-part:

Vocabulary Title	Namespace Name	Prefix
The Dublin Core Metadata Element Set, v1.1	http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/	dc
Dublin Core Terms	http://purl.org/dc/terms/	dcterms
Dublin Core Type Vocabulary	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/	dcmitype
MARC Relator Code Properties	http://www.loc.gov/loc.terms/relators/	marcrel
Collection-Level Description Terms	http://purl.org/cld/terms/	cld
Collection Type Vocabulary Terms	http://purl.org/cld/collection/type/	colltype
Collection Description Type Vocabulary Terms	http://purl.org/cld/colldesc/type/	colldesctype

Collection Properties

1. Collection Identifier [dc:identifier]
2. Title [dc:title]
3. Alternative Title [dcterms:alternative]
4. Description [dcterms:abstract]
5. Size [dcterms:extent]
6. Language [dc:language]
7. Type [dc:type]
8. Rights [dc:rights]
9. Access Rights [dcterms:accessRights]
10. Accrual Method [dcterms:accrualMethod]
11. Accrual Periodicity [dcterms:accrualPeriodicity]
12. Accrual Policy [dcterms:accrualPolicy]
13. Custodial History [dcterms:provenance]
14. Audience [dcterms:audience]
15. Subject [dc:subject]
16. Spatial Coverage [dcterms:spatial]
17. Temporal Coverage [dcterms:temporal]
18. Accumulation Date Range [dcterms:created]
19. Contents Date Range [cld:dateContentsCreated]
20. Subject Completeness [cld:subjectCompleteness]
21. Collector [dc:creator]
22. Owner [marcrel:own]
23. Is Available Via [cld:isAccessedVia]
24. Super-Collection [dcterms:isPartOf]
25. Sub-Collection [dcterms:hasPart]
26. Catalogue or Description [dc:description]
27. Associated Collection [dc:relation]
28. Associated Publication [dcterms:isReferencedBy]

Subject Completeness Indicator Properties

1. Completeness Subject [cld:completenessSubject]
2. Completeness Level [cld:completenessLevel]

Encoding Schemes Used

1. Uniform Resource Identifier [dcterms:URI]
2. ISO 639-2 [dcterms:ISO639-2]
3. Collection Type Vocabulary [cld:CollType]
4. Collection Description Type Vocabulary [cld:CollDescType]
5. DCCD Accrual Method [cld:DCCDAccrualMethod]
6. DCCD Accrual Periodicity [cld:DCCDAccrualPeriodicity]
7. DCCD Accrual Policy [cld:DCCDAccrualPolicy]
8. Library of Congress Subject Headings [dcterms:LCSH]
9. Library of Congress Classification [dcterms:LCC]
10. Medical Subject Headings [dcterms:MESH]
11. Dewey Decimal Classification [dcterms:DDC]
12. Universal Decimal Classification [dcterms:UDC]
13. Recordkeeping Metadata Schema Extension to ISO8601 [cld:RKMS-ISO8601]
14. Collection [dcmitype:Collection]
15. Subject Completeness Indicator [cld:SCI]
16. Conspectus Level [cld:ConspectusLevel]

Administrative Metadata

A collection-level description conforming to this profile should itself be described by an appropriate administrative metadata description. This document does not specify the properties to be used in that administrative metadata description.

Changes made in this version

• Remove gen:logo property.
• Change name of cld:SubjectCompletenessIndicator class to cld:SCI.

References

[NISOMICDS]  NISO Metasearch Initiative Collection Description Schema Summary
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/nisomi/cd-schema-summary/

[DCCDAP]  Dublin Core Collection Description Application Profile
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/dcmi/collection-application-profile/

[AMCC]  Heaney, Michael. An Analytical Model of Collections and their Catalogues
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/rslp/model/

[DCAM]  Powell, Andy, Mikael Nilsson, Ambjörn Naeve, Pete Johnston. DCMI Abstract Model
http://dublincore.org/documents/abstract-model/