Another one you might want to look at is the USMARC Community Information
Format, which can be used for individuals. See
http://lcweb.loc.gov/marc/community/eccihome.html. Unfortunately, only the
concise version of the format is on the web at the moment--the full printed
version shows some examples of how the format works with individuals. If
you're interested in seeing some examples, let me know.
Diane Hillmann
Cornell University Library
>As Peter Winn has raised the issue of metadata that enhances the discovery
>of humans, I'd like to explore a little further (despite the fact that it
>necessitates me thinking of my colleagues as "resources" :-(
>
>I am investigating the creation and maintenance of a database of Australian
>chemists (or chemically-interested persons ;-). Is there already a
>recognised schema out there for the description of personnel? Despite
>Simon Cox's reply to Peter, I'm not yet clear whether DC is appropriate or
>not. It would be very convenient if it was because we have good tools to
>create and manage DC metadata.
>
>At 9:05 AM +0800 on 21/7/98,Simon Cox wrote in reply to Peter Winn:
>
>>Peter - I think that there is a major flaw in your example,
>>concerning the DC.Identifier elements. Your example metadata
>>purports to describe a person, whereas the identifiers that
>>you give identify
>>1. a web page
>>2. an e-mail address.
>>
>>Neither the web-page or e-mail address are identifiers for
>>instantiations of Stu. Arguably, they are resources in their
>>own right. The 1:1 principle, which was extensively discussed
>>at DC-5, asserts the notion that DC metadata should refer to
>>a single specific instantiation of a resource.
>>"Identifier" should really be some kind of unique code for
>>the resource itself. Better examples in the case of a person
>>might be SSN, TFN, etc.
>>
>>However, pursuing this line a little further, while the web-page
>>is relatively easy to describe in DC, the e-mail address is
>>trickier (I guess, if pushed, I'd suggest it could be
>>DC.Type="interactive" since it only has meaning when interacted
>>with, but I'm not real confident here). Furthermore, both
>>of these resources are clearly _related_ to Stu-the-person,
>>and thus it should be possible to provide pointers between the
>>metadata for each and Stu-the-person using DC.Relation. I wonder
>>what Relation-type should be used? For the web-page either
>>"IsBasedOn/IsBasisFor" or "References/IsReferencedBy". However,
>>for the e-mail address it is not at all clear.
>>The choices are (see Relation working-group report [1] )
>>
>>IsPartOf/HasPart
>>IsVersionOf/HasVersion
>>IsFormatOf/HasFormat
>>References/IsReferencedBy
>>IsBasedOn/IsBasisFor
>>Requires/IsRequiredBy
>>
>>Given the two problems described here for e-mail address
>>(which DC.Type? and which DC.Relation-type wrt the person)
>>maybe I've argued all the way back around to e-mail address
>>actually being a valid "identifier" for a person.
>>Doesn't feel quite right.
>>
>>Comments, anyone. (esp. David, Misha?)
>>
>>(yr values for DC.Subject are a little wierd too - they are not
>>really keywords applicable to Stu-the-person - perhaps the
>>contents of his mind, but ...)
>>
>>[1] http://purl.oclc.org/metadata/dublin_core/wrelationdraft.html
>>
>>
>>[log in to unmask] wrote:
>>>
>>> DC.Title = "Weibel, Stu"
>>> DC.Type = "Physical Object"
>>> DC.Identifier = "http://www.oclc.org:5047/~weibel/" SCHEME="URL"
>>> DC.Identifier = "[log in to unmask]" SCHEME = "Email Address"
>>> DC.Subject = "Dublin Core, Metadata, OCLC, IETF, HTML, URI, IW3C2, ALCTS,
>>> ..."
>>> DC.Date = "nnnn-nn-nn /" (Stu's Birthday)
>>> ...
>>--
>>__________________________________________________
>>Dr Simon Cox - Australian Geodynamics Cooperative Research Centre
>>CSIRO Exploration & Mining, PO Box 437, Nedlands, WA 6009 Australia
>>T: +61 8 9389 8421 F: +61 8 9389 1906 [log in to unmask]
>>http://www.ned.dem.csiro.au/SimonCox/
>
>
>___________________________________________________________________
>Alan Arnold, School of Chemistry and
>Director of Flexible Education, University College (UNSW)
>Australian Defence Force Academy, CANBERRA ACT 2600 Australia
>voice:+61 2 6268 8080 fax:+61 2 6268 8002 web: http://www.ch.adfa.oz.au/apa/
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