[open-bibliography] Collecting Metadata for PublicDomainWorks.net

Tue Mar 8 19:12:41 UTC 2011

At the highest level, standard library catalog data types are (from  
the documentation):

a - Language material
c - Notated music
d - Manuscript notated music
e - Cartographic material
f - Manuscript cartographic material
g - Projected medium
i - Nonmusical sound recording
j - Musical sound recording
k - Two-dimensional nonprojectable graphic
m - Computer file
o - Kit
p - Mixed materials
r - Three-dimensional artifact or naturally occurring object
t - Manuscript language material

Libraries focus on "fixed and published" items, so there are few  
paintings, sculptures, etc. Most library materials are ones that are  
reproduced, like books, musical recordings, sheet music, films. (And  
obviously few non-print-on-paper items are in the public domain.)  
Archives are more likely to have photographs than libraries are. Their  
metadata, however, often does not record information about individual  
items (e.g. individual photographs), but about a collection as a  
whole. I don't know much about the state of museum metadata.

kc

Quoting Primavera De Filippi <primavera.defilippi at okfn.org>:

> Hi all,
> I write to you on behalf of the Public Domain Working Group. We are
> currently working on enhancing and expanding the collection of works
> available at www.publicdomainworks.net - a registry of artistic works that
> are in the public domain. In order to do that, we need to gain access to a
> maximum of information concerning works of different kinds (in particular,
> the author, the date of birth and death, the date of publication, etc).
> While we already have a proper database for bibliographic works, we
> areinterested in getting metadata for as many different kinds of works
> as
> possible.
> We are currently trying to figure out where we can find metadata about works
> other than books or other written publications, which is currently provided
> by the Bibliographica team. In particular, I would like to know what kind of
> metadata do library catalogues often contain? how good is the quality? and
> who would you suggest we contact in order to obtain the metadata we are
> looking for.
> Looking forward to your answer,
> Primavera
>

-- 
Karen Coyle
kcoyle at kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
ph: 1-510-540-7596
m: 1-510-435-8234
skype: kcoylenet