A DC Scholarly Communications Community BOF session on repository 
metadata was held on 2 April during the Open Repositories conference in 
Southampton. The short lunchtime meeting was open to anyone working on 
repository metadata initiatives and implementation. Around 20 people 
attended, mainly from the UK. The aim was to exchange updates on current 
work and discuss common issues.

The meeting focused on the DC application profiles either recently 
developed (Scholarly Works - SWAP) or currently being developed/in draft 
(Images - IAP, Geospatial resources (GAP), Time Based Media). Discussion 
also touched on the related Learning Materials AP scoping study. These 
initiatives are being funded by JISC in the UK, although are 
international in scope: a participant mentioned that SWAP fulfils their 
requirements in France.

Pete Johnston provided a quick recap of the FRBR (Functional 
Requirements for Bibliographic Records) conceptual model and its four 
levels of representation: work, expression, manifestation, and item. 
Julie Allinson and Mick Eadie used SWAP and IAP respectively to 
demonstrate use of the model. SWAP is fully based on the FRBR model (eg 
of a minor change is that SWAP uses the term ‘copy’ instead of ‘item’); 
IAP is partially based on FRBR eg it omits the ‘Expression’ level, which 
is a clear move away from the model. FRBR may not be suitable for all 
media types.

Participants felt that practical workshops to support profile 
implementation would be useful. More implementation is needed! (eg 
reported: the in-house developed repository at STFC is FRBR-based and 
the CLADDIER project implemented SWAP.) JISC is funding two new posts at 
UKOLN and TASI to support adoption of the profiles in the UK HE community.

A Scholarly Communications Community workshop will be held during 
DC-2008 in Berlin; JISC is also holding a meeting to discuss profile 
coordination.

1. SWAP: 
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/repositories/digirep/index/Eprints_Application_Profile 

2. Images AP: 
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/repositories/digirep/index/Images_Application_Profile 



Rosemary Russell, UKOLN
Julie Allinson, University of York
Pete Johnston, Eduserv Foundation

-- 
Rosemary Russell
UKOLN, University of Bath
Bath BA2 7AY
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk
+44 1483 560342