Results and implications of the EuropeanaLocal metadata and content survey

1. Gordon McKenna Collections Trust, UK Results and implications of the EuropeanaLocal metadata and content survey

2. Why Standards? The British Standards Institution (BSI), the world’s oldest standards setting organisation (1901), says: “Put at its simplest, a standard is an agreed, repeatable way of doing something. It is a published document that contains a technical specification or other precise criteria designed to be used consistently as a rule, guideline, or definition. Standards help to make life simpler and to increase the reliability and the effectiveness of many goods and services we use. Standards are created by bringing together the experience and expertise of all interested parties such as the producers, sellers, buyers, users and regulators of a particular material, product, process or service." Plus in the context of Europeana: delivering interoperability

3. The Horrible Truth?

4. EuropeanaLocal Survey Sections • Content provider information • Collection description • Digital object metadata • Information scheme(s) (metadata) • Terminologies: • Geographic names and co-ordinate standards • Date format and time periods • Subjects • Person and organisation • Contributing to Europeana

5. Providers

6. Content Numbers

7. Content Themes

8. Content Time Periods (%)

9. Content Languages (examples)

10. Content Conclusions • Providers – c50% local libraries • Content source – c60% from archives and aggregators • Themes – Local history & Fine art (typical), Education • Time periods: • Most content 18th century to present • Significant content (especially museums) BCE • Language – Reflect the historical environment of creation • Latin – religious and legal • English, French and German – lingua franca • E.g. Swedish in Finland – significant communities

11. Technical Standards Focusing on: • Amount of content • File types in use

12. Text Content

13. Image Content

14. Audio Content

15. Video Content

16. Technical Standards Conclusions • Organisations are using the expected technical standards • Recommend good set of guidelines, e.g.Technical Guidelines for Digital Cultural Content Creation Programmeshttp://www.minervaeurope.org/interoperability/technicalguidelines.htm • Advantages: • Multilingual • Written for a general cultural sector audience • Updated

17. Terminology Standards Focusing on: • Use • Creation – Published or In-house

18. Terminology Use

19. Terminology Creation

20. Terminology Standards Conclusions Factors affecting choice: • Subject area – Is there a suitable source covering the area being recorded available? • Language – Is there a source in the organisation’s main working language available? • National standard – Is there a mandated standard source available? • International standard – Is there an internationally recognised standard (usually de facto) available? • Getty terminologies • Library of Congress

21. Metadata Standards Focusing on: • Use • Organisation type • Adaption (changing the standard)

22. Metadata – Describing What?

23. Metadata Standards

24. Metadata Standard Adaption

25. Metadata Standards Conclusions • Libraries, archives and museums tend to use their own standards. • Dublin Core is a popular metadata scheme. • In-house developed metadata scheme & No standard significant. • Standard adaption significant (especially Dublin Core)