Metadata
Metadata Documentation
Definitions and functions
metadata: structured data describing information resources
- The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) defines metadata as "structured information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use, or manage an information resource."
- The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) defines metadata as "machine understandable information for the web."
- The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) defines metadata as describing, "the content, quality, condition, and other characteristics of data."
- Put simply, metadata are data about data. They provide context for research findings, ideally in a machine-readable format. Once published, metadata can enable discovery of data via electronic interfaces and enable correct use and attribution of your findings.
(from: http://marinemetadata.org/guides/mdataintro/mdatadefined)
Metadata from and for research data
- external metadata: basis for unambiguous citation, comparable to classical catalogue data (libraries).
- internal metadata: metadata on subject-specific level, necessary for subject-specific understanding.
- technical and method specific: data record comprehensible from technical and content point of vies, data file name, file format, file size, (hash value) , information about software,
- subject-specific, here biodiversity specific: biodiversity specific metatdata for subject-specific retrieval available?, ABCD sufficient for all biodiversity primary data?
recommendations from the German research foundatation (DFG)
"Die Daten werden durch Metadaten beschrieben. Mit den Metadaten (mindestens nach Dublin Core) werden zum einen die bibliographischen Fakten festgehalten. Es sind dies der Name des Forschers, der die Daten erhoben hat, die Benennung des Datensatzes, Ort und Jahr der Veröffentlichung sowie technische Daten (Format etc). In den inhaltsbezogenen Metadaten werden die Primärdaten umfassend beschrieben. Hier finden sich die Angaben zu den Rahmenbedingungen, unter denen sie erhoben bzw. gemessen wurden. Hier beschreibt der Autor auch die Fragestellung, unter der die Daten entstanden. Es sollen hier alle Informationen vorliegen, die für eine wiederholte Nutzung der Daten in anderen Fragestellungen erforderlich sind. Die Kriterien des Information Life Cycle Management sollen dabei berücksichtigt werden."
(from: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Ausschuss für Wissenschaftliche Bibliotheken und Informationssysteme, Unterausschuss für Informationsmanagement, Empfehlungen zur gesicherten Aufbewahrung und Bereitstellung digitaler Forschungsprimärdaten, Januar 2009)
metadata for long term storage
- structural metadata: relation of one object with other objects in an achrive (standard, e.g. METS)
- administrative mtadata: administration of archived objects, originator and use evidence, access control, provinience information
- preservation metadata: history of an objekt, e.g. provinience, measurements for long term accessability, authenticity, rights information regarding applicable processes (standards PREMIS, LMER)
Metadata Standards
catalogue Standards
- PICA - Project of Integrated Catalogue Automation
- MARC – Machine Readable Cataloging
- Dublin Core
external Metadataschemas
- STD – DOI: 25 desrcibing input fields, oriented on ISO-Norm 690-2* for citation of electronic resources, fields from DC and international DOI Foundation, (http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=25921 ), required: identifier, creators, titles, publisher, publication year, Optional: subjects, contributors, dates, language, resourceType, alternateIdentifiers, relatedIdentifiers, formats, version, rightes, descriptions
- DataCite: draft, based on STD-DOI
- Altman & King: bases mainly on Dublin Core
- OECD publisher: based on Altman and King, 27 elements
- DANS (Data Archiving and Networked Services): 15 DC terms elements, which roughly correspond to a refinement of the core elements.
- ANDS (Australian National Data Service): seperate etadatenschema, four groups: collection, service, party and activity in different relations
(from: Konzeptstudie Forschungsdaten Chemie, www.fiz-chemie.de/fileadmin/user_upload/PDF_DE/Konzeptstudie_Forschungsdaten_Chemie.pdf)
groups of external metadata
- ID
- technical data (Technische Daten)
- discription of content (Beschreibung des Inhalts)
- people and rights (Personen und Rechte)
- networking (Vernetzung)
- life cycle (Lebenszyklus)
further relevant metadata standards
- DIF - Directory Interchange Format
- ISO 19115 - Geographic Information Metadata
- EML - Ecological Metadata Language
metadata standards for long term storage
- METS -(Metadata Encoding & Transmission Standard): information about digitised objects, XML format, representation of inner object structure, metadatacontainer
- PREMIS - (PREservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies) Entities: Intellectual, Object, Event, Rights, Agent, exact description by semantic units.
- LMER - (Deutsche Bibliothek, 2003) based on Preservation Metadata Schema of the National Library New Zealand, exchange format in cooperative archive systems, technical information, history of an object, object, file, process, modification, LMER data mapping to PREMIS data
Metadata Management Software
- Metacat: metadata catalogue and repository for science data (ecology, environmental research), XML syntax, open source
- Morpho: software for metadata input, storage EML conform files, information about people, locations, research methods, data attributess
- MERMAid (Metadata Enterprise Resource Management Aid): tool for development, validation, management, publication of metadata
- MATT (Metadata Authoring Tool): runs within webbrowser, instructions for composing metadata, data converted to XML
- CatMDEdit: metadata editor tool, focus on description geographic information resources, conform with DC and ISO 19115.
- Archivematica: digital preservation sysem, free, open source, data processing from ingest to access according to ISO-OAIS model
(from: Konzeptstudie Forschungsdaten Chemie)
