Summer+2006+Question+2

Question #5 (Set A) and Summer 2006 Question 2
Digital libraries and collections are receiving increasing attention in the literature and at professional meetings. Some argue that traditional hard copy collections will soon be a thing of the past. However, in the current environment, access systems simultaneously hold metadata for hard-copy and digital items, thus creating challenges for the organization and representation of information.

First, summarize, compare and contrast the roles of descriptive, administrative, and structural metadata. Then, considering a collection that combines both physical objects (e.g., books, DVDs, slides) and purely digital assets (e.g., datasets, blog content, digitized journal articles and books, video files), provide the rationale for differences in the design of one descriptive metadata element, one administrative metadata element, and one structural metadata element for each type of item (i.e., physical object and digital asset) in the collection. Summer 2006 Question 2

//Descriptive Metadata// is comprised of things like title, author, and keywords,and Intellectual content of the Information package/ Entity/ object Definition: describes a resource for purposes of discovery and identification (Jody: from __The Organization of Information__ 2nd Ed., by Taylor, p. 152" "//Descriptive metadata is that which describes the identifying characteristics of an information package along with analyzing its intellectual contents.//" It includes identifying information, intellectual organization information (authority control, co-location with related materials, etc), and intellectual access data (subject headings, classification, etc.))

//Structural Metadata// deals with the structure of an information object; how compound objects are put together (ie, how pages are ordered to form chapters). Structural metadata dealing with technical information of the Information package/ Entity/ object such as format, duration of the multimedia movies, the size of the file,and all hard/software information (Taylor, pages 150-151).

(Jody: also from __The Organization of Information__ 2nd Ed., by Taylor, pp. 150-151: "//Structural metadata is that which refers to the 'makeup' or structure of the file, dataset or information package... It refers to how related files are bound together and how the object can be displayed and disseminated...It deals with what an object is, what it does, and how it works. Sometimes, structural metadata is referred to as technical metadata, display metadata, or use metadata."// It includes hardware/software documentation, technical info, version control, digitization info, info about the creation of the object, authentication and security data, associated search protocols, etc.)

//Administrative Metadata// is information to help manage a resource: file type, who can access it, how it was created, who created it and where. (Jody: see __The Organization of Information__ 2nd Ed., by Taylor, pp. 147-148: "//Administrative metadata is created for the purposes of management, decision making, and record keeping. It provides information about the storage requirements and migration processes of digital objects.... assists with monitoring, reproducing, digitizing, and backing up digital information packages.//" It includes: aquisition info, ownership/rights/permission/reproduction info, legal access requirements, location info, use info, use management, preservation info (integrity, documentation of physical condition, and of actions taken to preserve.))

(Query: would things like physical dimensions and number of pages go under descriptive or structural? I would think structural, but...)
 * //(Jody says yes. Physical dimensions, number of pages are indeed structural, regardless of where it goes in a MARC record. MARC records are a combination of descriptive, administrative, and structural.)//**

//Please visit this site// [|//http://www.odl.ox.ac.uk/metadata.htm//] //and read The Organization of Information 2end Edition by Taylor. you will see d//eferent definition

I found this pdf when looking up 520 information: http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/UnderstandingMetadata.pdf It helped me. Sharon P.

Jody, addressing this: "//provide the rationale for differences in the design of one descriptive element, one administrative metadata element, and one structural metadata element for each type of item"//:
 * Descriptive**: Whereas for a hardcopy book, it may be ideal to classify it according to LC or Dewey Decimal system (element: LC_classificationCode), that may be totally inappropriate for a blog, which may cover many subjects, and cannot be organized in the same fashion. It may be more appropriate for the blog to be classified by the author name combined with the date and time of inception (element: AuthorInception).
 * Administrative:** Documentation of the physical condition of an object would be quite different for a book as opposed to a born-digital document. Whereas "element: CoverCondition" would be valid for a physical object, that is totally nonsensical for most digital items. More valid for them would be "element: LostBits", listing the count of bits known to be lost since the item was first created, as many digital objects become corrupt over time, and with repeated usage.
 * Structural:** In a hardcopy item, it may be sufficient to define the number and range of pages within separate sections of the object ( element, as a subelement of ChapterNumber: PageRange), whereas for a digital book, it is often necessary to specify which text file goes with which image file (one for searching, one for display) as well as where those 2 files fall within a chapter. I'm thinking of the METS [|structmap] here. A more valid element would require further breakdown. Within ChapterNumber would be SequenceNumber (note that page numbers may differ from sequence numbers -- often page 1 doesn't start till sequence number 3 or 4 or even later), further broken down into TextFile or ImageFile elements.