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Uniting Libraries And Archives:
How An Integrated Metadata
Strategy Can Produce a Common
Research Environment
Richard Gartner, King's College London
An explosion in digital library
collections...
http://crln.acrl.org/content/71/6/286.shor
t
Digitization of unique library collections will increase and
require a larger share of resources..libraries often must
reallocate fiscal resources to support these projects
The definition of the library will change as physical space is
repurposed and virtual space expands
“many historical documents are
available digitally...[but] are also
separated from their historical and
documentary context.”
Mark Vajcner
Respect des
fonds
to group, without mixing them with others, the
archives (documents of every kind) created by or
coming from an administration, establishment,
person, or corporate body. (Michel Duchein)
Natalis de
Wailly (1841)
'archival description, that is ‘the process of capturing, collating,
analysing, and organizing any information that serves to identify,
manage, locate, and interpret the holdings of archival institutions and
explain the contexts and records systems from which those holdings
were selected’
Working Group on Standards for Archival
Description (WGSAD) (1989)
For the researcher, archives and libraries are
equally important resources.
To establish a coherent research
environment which does not allow important
material to become invisible it is important to
devise a metadata strategy which unites
both approaches.
CENDARI: what we aim to do
‘Enquiry environment’
disparate collections linked and interrogated in new ways
→ shared virtual research infrastructures.
Techniques



data mining
Visualizations
online annotation
->all in multilingual environments.
The metadata architecture
Medieval domain stresses the item
The metadata architecture
WWI domain stresses the collection
EAG
EAD
METS
MARC
Is Creator Of
William
Shakespeare
Hamlet
http://www.w3.org/People/EM83889
http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/creator
http://www.loc.gov/catalog_entries/839840982098
An RDF (Resource Description Framework) “triple”








Components can be re-used flexibly
Complex semantic relationships between objects
and components are easily established
Linking can take place at any level of granularity
Complexity of data often requires substantial
developer time
Data modelling is very time-consuming
Data cleansing and maintenance is often difficult
Reusing and exchanging data has proved harder
than expected
Archival robustness of RDF data?
"We have yet to see any real examples of benefit [from
linked data for library metadata] emerging from JISC
projects in this area, or elsewhere"
EAG
EAD
METS
MARC








Components can be re-used flexibly
Complex semantic relationships between objects
and components are easily established
Linking can take place at any level of granularity
Complexity of data often requires substantial
developer time
Data modelling is very time-consuming
Data cleansing and maintenance is often difficult
Reusing and exchanging data has proved harder
than expected
Archival robustness of RDF data?
CENDARI: what we aim to do
‘Enquiry environment’
disparate collections linked and interrogated in new ways
→ shared virtual research infrastructures.
Techniques



data mining
Visualizations
online annotation
->all in multilingual environments.
Thank you!
Any questions?
[email protected]