[openbiblio-dev] Open Metadata Handbook

Thu Dec 1 16:42:03 UTC 2011

Dear Primavera,

Thanks for the answer!

EuropeanaLibraries will produce in fact produce a deliverable this month, on their own metadata profile. Valentine Charles and Robina Clayphan (cc'ed) are involved in this, they will take care of forwarding this to you then. Depending on how this can be used in your own report or not, further collaboration may happen!

I must admit I am still a bit skeptical about the scope of the Handbook, however. The idea of providing an overview on various categories of creative works is seducing, but this has been tried already. And most often, the complexity and great variety of issues at hand results in unpalatable documents, unless some drastic re-scoping has happened before.

Similarly, if the Handbook is a meant to be a rather non-technical document, then you should be careful that all parts are written with this in mind. I have seen bits in the current version, for example on RDF databases, which do not really fit that goal.

Cheers,

Antoine

> Hi Antoine,
> thanks for coming back to me, and I hope you enjoyed your holiday ;)
> The europeana-libraries project is a really great initiative, do you think they would be interested in collaborating with us? and how do you think they could contribute to the Open Metadata Handbook ?
>
> As for your concerns, which I believe are shared amongst others, I will try to provide a short explanation:
>
> The guide is not meant to be a technical / detailled guide on how to release open bibliographic metadata, rather, it is meant to be a simple and user-friendly guide that we can hand out to various GLAM institutions who have not yet released their metadata in an open and interroperable format.
>
> We do not want to provide detailled instructions, but only a document that can guide them into selecting the proper format / standard / or protocol for releasing their bibliographic data.
> This is achieved by (a) providing a list of standards with their respective advantages and drawbacks, together with a list of institutions that uses them (who uses what), and (b) a decision tree where different data providers can answer simple questions in order to find out what are best-practices for them, in terms of exchange format and metadata format.
>
> The scope of the Handbook is so broad because we thought it would be better to provide a general overview for different categories of works and different types of institutions, rather than a detailled set of instructions for only one type of work. I'm not sure if you agree with that, I'd be happy to hear your opinion..
>
> Finally, as opposed to the work undertaken by e.g. the DC Library application profile, the Open Metadata Handbook is much less technical and is merely an initiative aimed at encouraging GLAM institutions to release their data in an open and interroperable format, rather than at providing them with the technical specifications of the proper format to use.
>
> I hope this clarifies your concerns a bit, please let me know what you think about it and how you think you could help us out ! :)
>
> Cheers,
> Primavera
>
>
>
> Also, I wonder what is the specificity induced by "openness" in this work--in other words, why would such metadata spec effort be carried out by the Open Biblio group. Especially, what would be the relation/difference with work undertaken as part of say, the Dublin Core Library application profile (http://dublincore.org/__documents/library-application-__profile/ <http://dublincore.org/documents/library-application-profile/>) ?
>
>
> On Wed, Nov 23, 2011 at 6:58 PM, Antoine Isaac <aisaac at few.vu.nl <mailto:aisaac at few.vu.nl>> wrote:
>
>     Dear Primavera,
>
>     First, sorry for the delay, I was on a quite long holiday.
>
>     Second, thanks for the ping. In fact I'm suscribed to the openbiblio-dev list, so I was already aware of your efforts.
>     And if there's room for us, we'll be gladly considering your offer(s). Especially, there is a Europeana-related project (http://www.europeana-__libraries.eu/ <http://www.europeana-libraries.eu/>) that could be in position to make relevant contributions.
>
>     However, I have to admit that I share some of the doubts that were raised on the list recently--a reason why I did not enter the discussion sooner. Especially, what is the aim and scope of that Open Metadata Handbook? Addressing the realm of all creative works is a bit ambitious. Finding an agreement on bibliographic data alone can prove difficult enough... The introduction of the wiki is quite unclear on this:
>     "The goal is to produce something that can be given to various GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) institutions to help them setting up a proper metadata model for their works. We want to provide them a few simple steps that illustrate the best practices (or second-best practices) in terms of bibliographic metadata for each category of works."
>
>     Also, I wonder what is the specificity induced by "openness" in this work--in other words, why would such metadata spec effort be carried out by the Open Biblio group. Especially, what would be the relation/difference with work undertaken as part of say, the Dublin Core Library application profile (http://dublincore.org/__documents/library-application-__profile/ <http://dublincore.org/documents/library-application-profile/>) ?
>
>     Cheers,
>
>     Antoine
>
>     PS: by the way the links to the Library Linked Data W3C group can be updated on your wiki. It's now published at http://www.w3.org/2005/__Incubator/lld/XGR-lld/ <http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/lld/XGR-lld/> :-)
>
>         Hi Antoine, Martin, Michel, Daniel, Emanuelle and Herbert
>
>         I write to you on behalf of the Public Domain Working Group of the Open Knowledge Foundation.
>         We are currently working on the making of the Open Metadata Handbook - http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/__Open_Metadata_Handbook <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Open_Metadata_Handbook>
>         and we were wondering the following:
>
>         (1) whether you or anyone else you know might be interested in contributing to it, and if so, whether you'd like to join the task-force;
>         (2) whether you already have some work lying around that you think might be useful or that could even be integrated directly into the guide,
>         (3) or whether you have any kind of suggestions, ideas, or any useful comments about it :)
>
>         Looking forward to your replies,
>         Primavera !
>
>
>
>         ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>         From: *Jonathan Gray* <jonathan.gray at okfn.org <mailto:jonathan.gray at okfn.org> <mailto:jonathan.gray at okfn.org <mailto:jonathan.gray at okfn.org>__>>
>         Date: Tue, Nov 8, 2011 at 12:42 PM
>         Subject: Re: [openbiblio-dev] Bibliographic Metadata Guide is now on Wiki !
>         To: Primavera De Filippi <primavera.defilippi at okfn.org <mailto:primavera.defilippi at okfn.org> <mailto:primavera.defilippi at __okfn.org <mailto:primavera.defilippi at okfn.org>>>
>         Cc: Public Domain discuss list <pd-discuss at lists.okfn.org <mailto:pd-discuss at lists.okfn.org> <mailto:pd-discuss at lists.okfn.__org <mailto:pd-discuss at lists.okfn.org>>>, openbiblio-dev at lists.okfn.org <mailto:openbiblio-dev at lists.okfn.org> <mailto:openbiblio-dev at lists.__okfn.org <mailto:openbiblio-dev at lists.okfn.org>>
>
>
>         Great start Primavera.
>
>         Due to the breadth of this (not just books, but films, artworks, etc)
>         - what about renaming this to the Open Metadata Handbook? I think this
>         is what we originally discussed. What do you think?
>
>         Also I'd ping Europeana Data Model (EDM) people as soon as possible,
>         if you haven't done so already. They may have existing work or ideas
>         that we might be able to build on, incorporate or at least allude to
>         and bear in mind!
>
>         The metadata standards section [1] is epic (and scary!). ;-)
>
>         J.
>
>         [1] http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/__Bibliographic_Metadata_Guide/__Metadata_Standards <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Bibliographic_Metadata_Guide/Metadata_Standards>
>
>         On Mon, Nov 7, 2011 at 3:26 PM, Primavera De Filippi
>         <primavera.defilippi at okfn.org <mailto:primavera.defilippi at okfn.org> <mailto:primavera.defilippi at __okfn.org <mailto:primavera.defilippi at okfn.org>>> wrote:
>          >
>          > Hi all
>          > As you might already know, the Public Domain Working Group and the Open
>          > Bibliographic Data Working Groupof the Open Knowledge Foundationare working
>          > on the drafting of a Bibliographic Metadata Guide.
>          > The goal is to produce something that can be hand in to various GLAM
>          > institutions to help them setting up a proper metadata model for their
>          > works.
>          > We want to provide them a few simple steps that illustrates the best
>          > practices (or second-best practices) in terms of bibliographic metadata for
>          > each category of works.
>          > The guide has now been turned into a Wikibook for easier editing, the
>          > current draft is available here
>          > http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/__Bibliographic_Metadata_Guide <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Bibliographic_Metadata_Guide>
>          > We would like to involve the whole community in this project, so please feel
>          > free to contribute it any way you like, and if you know someone that might
>          > be interested in contributing to this guide, please don't hesitate to
>          > forward the link to them.
>          >
>          > Main tasks which are still to be completed are:
>          >
>          > - review & add to the current minimum/complete list of core metadata
>          > elements for literary work + provide a similar minimum/complete list of core
>          > metadata elements for other kinds of works
>          >
>          > - review/edit the current description of metadata standards + eventually
>          > provide some additional information concerning who uses what
>          >
>          > - for the last section, produce a decision-tree, where different data
>          > providers can answer simple questions in order to find out what are
>          > best-practices for them, in terms of exchange format and metadata format.
>          >
>          > Finally, we are trying to set up a small task-force of contributors who
>          > would be assigned specific sections or tasks. If you are interested in
>          > joining the task force, please don't hesitate to contact me.
>          >
>          > Thanks !
>          >
>          >
>          >
>          >
>          >
>          >
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>
>          > http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/__listinfo/openbiblio-dev <http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/openbiblio-dev>
>          >
>          >
>
>
>
>         --
>         Jonathan Gray
>
>         Community Coordinator
>         The Open Knowledge Foundation
>         http://www.okfn.org
>
>         http://twitter.com/jwyg
>
>
>