APPENDIX C - Mapping to Dublin Core
The Dublin Core Metadata Element Set, or ‘Dublin Core’, is a set of fifteen attributes developed over the past couple of years by an international cross–disciplinary group comprising cataloguing experts, technologists and domain specific content specialists.
Many detailed standards already exist within different disciplines, including the US geospatial community’s Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata [4] and the draft ISO standard, both of which lie within NGDF’s sphere of interest.
Each of these standards is normally extremely detailed, labour–intensive to comply with, and highly specialised; a standard developed to describe library books is typically incapable of effectively describing museum objects or digital map data.
The Dublin Core, on the other hand, is neither highly detailed, nor tied to the resources or interests of a specific subject domain. It is in no way intended as a replacement for the existing detailed standards, each of which is well evolved for its particular niche, but rather offers the potential to blur the artificial distinctions they create.
In searching for –– or ‘discovering’ –– a resource, a user is far more likely to be interested in "environmental data for Northumberland" rather than "map data" or "borehole logs" or "river catchments", each of which might be provided by a different organisation or subject grouping. It is this need which Dublin Core seeks to address, offering users the potential to search across diverse data types, structures, etc. in a unified fashion. Users may then –– if they need to –– interact with the diverse detailed metadata formats describing those resources meeting their initial search criteria.
NGDF’s discovery metadata in many ways fulfils a similar set of criteria, allowing users to search consistent descriptions of resources in which the underlying data models may well be radically different. In order to facilitate easy integration of NGDF with the growing number of resources worldwide which implement Dublin Core, a ‘mapping’ to the most basic form of Dublin Core is offered below. It illustrates the manner in which the fifteen elements of the Dublin Core may be related to the NGDF structure.
Further information on the Dublin Core itself is available on the World Wide Web from purl.org/metadata/dublin_core. The Arts & Humanities Data Service, of which the NGDF–participating Archaeology Data Service is a part, recently released a report addressing many of the issues related to deploying Dublin Core in more detail, and this may be ordered from the AHDS web site at ahds.ac.uk, or browsed online.
|
Identifier |
NGDF |
Dublin Core Element Name |
|
1 |
Title |
DC.Title |
|
2 |
Alternative Title |
DC.Title |
|
3 |
Originator |
DC.Creator |
|
4 |
Abstract |
DC.Description |
|
5 |
Data Capture Period |
–– |
|
6 |
Status of Start Date of Capture |
–– |
|
7 |
Start Date of Capture |
DC.Date This is beyond the strictest definition of the Date element, but many users of Dublin Core do extend their interpretation of the element in ways similar to this. |
|
8 |
Status of Start Date of Capture |
–– |
|
9 |
End Date of Capture |
DC.Date This is beyond the strictest definition of the Date element, but many users of Dublin Core do extend their interpretation of the element in ways similar to this. |
|
10 |
Frequency of Update |
–– |
|
11 |
Presentation Type |
DC.Type |
|
12 |
Access Constraint |
DC.Rights |
|
13 |
Use Constraint |
DC.Rights |
|
14 |
Keywords |
DC.Subject |
|
15 |
Geographic Extent |
Not filled in. |
|
16 |
Spatial Referencing by Co–ordinates |
Not filled in. |
|
17 |
System of Spatial Referencing by Co–ordinates |
DC.Coverage |
|
18 |
Bounding Rectangle |
Not filled in. |
|
19 |
West Bounding Coordinate |
DC.Coverage |
|
20 |
East Bounding Coordinate |
DC.Coverage |
|
21 |
North Bounding Coordinate |
DC.Coverage |
|
22 |
South Bounding Coordinate |
DC.Coverage |
|
23 |
Spatial Referencing by Geographic Identifiers |
Not filled in. |
|
24 |
National Extent |
DC.Coverage |
|
25 |
Administrative Area Extent |
DC.Coverage |
|
26 |
Postcode Area Extent |
DC.Coverage |
|
27 |
Spatial Reference System |
–– |
|
28 |
Level of Spatial Detail |
–– |
|
29 |
Supply Media |
DC.Format |
|
30 |
Data Format |
DC.Format |
|
31 |
Additional Information Source |
DC.Description (?) |
|
32 |
Dataset Association |
DC.Relation |
|
33 |
Supplier |
DC.Publisher |
|
34 |
Contact Name or Title |
DC.Creator/ DC.Publisher/ DC.Contributor A decision needs to be made as to which of these three elements relates best to the NGDF notion of ‘supplier’. |
|
35 |
Full postal address of supplier |
DC.Creator/ DC.Publisher/ DC.Contributor |
|
36 |
Postcode of supplier |
DC.Creator/ DC.Publisher/ DC.Contributor |
|
37 |
Telephone number of supplier |
DC.Creator/ DC.Publisher/ DC.Contributor |
|
38 |
Facsimile number of supplier |
DC.Creator/ DC.Publisher/ DC.Contributor |
|
39 |
Email address of supplier |
DC.Creator/ DC.Publisher/ DC.Contributor |
|
40 |
Web address of supplier |
DC.Creator/ DC.Publisher/ DC.Contributor |
|
41 |
Date of update of Metadata |
–– |
|
42 |
Sample |
DC.Relation (?) The Relation element could potentially be used to provide a URL or filename for an image related to the resource. |