Diane,
Sorry that this is coming in really late.
1. A question about the Date element.
4.7. Date
Element Description: A date associated with the creation or
availability of the resource.
Question: Is this the date the resource was created in its present form? Or
the date the source (when there is one) was created? From the two examples in
2.1 and 2.2, it appears that the date of the source was entered.
In the example in 2.1 (Stand-Alone Metadata):
<META NAME="DC.Title" CONTENT="Kita Yama (Japan)">
<META NAME="DC.Creator" CONTENT="Kertesz, Andre">
<META NAME="DC.Date" CONTENT="1968">
<META NAME="DC.Type" CONTENT="e/photograph">
<META NAME="DC.Format" CONTENT="image/gif">
<META NAME="DC.Identifier" CONTENT="http://foo.bar.zaf/kertesz/kyama">
The date is 1968, which I assume was the year the photograph was taken
and not the year the image was digitized.
Similarly, in the example in 2.2 (Metadata Contained in a Resource):
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Song of the Open Road</TITLE>
<META NAME="DC.Title" CONTENT="Song of the Open Road">
<META NAME="DC.Creator" CONTENT="Nash, Ogden">
<META NAME="DC.Type" CONTENT="e/document">
<META NAME="DC.Date" CONTENT="1939">
<META NAME="DC.Format" CONTENT="text/html">
<META NAME="DC.Identifier"
CONTENT="http://www.poetry.com/nash/open.html">
</HEAD>
<BODY><PRE>
I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree.
Indeed, unless the billboards fall
I'll never see a tree at all.
</PRE></BODY>
</HTML>
The date is 1939. Again, I assume 1939 was the year the poem was created and
not the year it was digitized.
2. A question about the Resource Type.
4.8. Resource Type
Element Description: The category of the resource, such as home page,
novel, poem, working paper, technical report, essay, dictionary. For the sake
of interoperability, type should be selected from an enumerated list that is
under development in the workshop series.
......
A minimal default list recommended for DC is:
text
image
sound
data
software
interactive
physical object
compound/mixed
which are used as follows:
text resources in which the content is mainly words for reading: for
example - books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers,
archives of mailing lists
image the content is primarily visual in two dimensions and is not
text: for example - images, paintings, animations, diagrams
If I understand the above guidelines correctly, the type in the 2.1 example
should be "image" rather than "e/photograph", i.e.,
instead of <META NAME="DC.Type" CONTENT="e/photograph">,
it should be <META NAME="DC.Type" CONTENT="image">.
And the type in the 2.2 example should be "text" rather than "e/document",
i.e.,
instead of <META NAME="DC.Type" CONTENT="e/document">,
it should be <META NAME="DC.Type" CONTENT="text">.
If this is the case, then the wording in the Resource Description "The
category of the resource, such as home page, novel, poem, working paper,
technical report, essay, dictionary" is rather misleading. Because none of these
is on the recommended minimal default list. Perhaps, the Description should be
changed to something like "The category of the resource, such as text, image,
sound, data, software, interactive, physical object, compound/mixed."
Karen Hsu
The Research Libraries
The New York Public Library
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Last call
Author: [log in to unmask] (Diane I. Hillmann) at Internet Date: 6/9/98 3:14
PM
Folks:
We're down to the wire. The "User Guide for Simple Dublin Core" is now in final
draft, and will go to Stu Weibel as a finished document on Friday morning,
barring any screams of protest.
I have made a couple of itsy-bitsy changes, mostly fixing typos. Also, I have
changed the wording in the first paragraph where "Metadata" is defined, in
response to some late-breaking comments. The former version said:
"Metadata is, simply stated, a description of an information resource. The term
"meta" derives from the Greek word for change; "metadata," then, is data that
documents the origins of, and/or tracks the change or use of, data. Metadata may
be used for a variety of purposes: to identify a resource to meet a particular
information need; to evaluate the quality or fitness for use of such a resource;
to track the characteristics of a resource for subsequent maintenance or usage
over time; and so on<fontfamily><param>Geneva</param>. ..."
</fontfamily>
The new version says:
"Metadata is, simply stated, a description of an information resource. The term
"meta" derives from the Greek word "denoting a nature of a higher order or
more fundamental kind," such as metalanguage, or metatheory. "Metadata," then,
is data that sits above other data. Metadata may be used for a variety of
purposes: to identify a resource to meet a particular information need; to
evaluate the quality or fitness for use of such a resource; to track the
characteristics of a resource for subsequent maintenance or usage over time; and
so on. ..."
Anyone who wants to take potshots at my new wording, feel free. Do it quick,
though ... ;-)
Diane
P.S. Many thanks to all those of you who assisted with the work of fashioning
and revising this guide. Your comments have been instrumental in making this
document as useful as it can be. Please do stick around for the first draft
"Guide to Complex Dublin Core" coming soon (perhaps by this fall) to a screen
near you!
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