Collection-Level Description

1. Collection-Level Description Gordon Dunsire Depute Director, Centre for Digital Library Research Presentation for a workshop at the Libraries in the Digital Age Conference, May 26-30 2003, Dubrovnik

2. Overview • What is a collection? • What is collection-level description? • Why is it important? • Development in UK • Some practical issues • Scottish Collections Network (SCONE) • Information environments

3. What is a collection? • “Any aggregation of individual items (objects, resources)” • CD Focus briefing paper 1 • Size is not a factor – 1 item is possible • Varying degrees of permanence • Physical juxtaposition not necessary; collections can be distributed across multiple locations • Cross-domain • Libraries, museums, art galleries, archives, digital • Definition is too vague to be practicable • Limit to “useful” collections • “Useful” defined in terms of “Functional granularity”

4. Functional granularity • “… useful or necessary for the purposes of resources discovery or collection management” – Heaney • As deemed by “the institution” • Might include user groups as well as owners and administrators • Exclude • Dynamic collections (results of retrieval) • Single persons (unless significant)

5. What is CLD? • Collection-Level Description • Metadata at the level of aggregation: Title:William Speirs Bruce Collection Description:Collection of material on oceanography and Arctic and Antarctic exploration, bequeathed by Dr. William Speirs Bruce, Polar explorer and oceanographer (1867-1921). Location: Edinburgh University Library. Main Library Collectors:William S. (William Speirs) Bruce (1867-1921) [Collecting: Closed] Subjects: Antarctica--Discovery and exploration Part of: Edinburgh University Library. Department of Special Collections printed books collections

6. Confusing terms • Collection-Level Description • The complete metadata for a collection • The process of creating a CLD • Collection-Description • A finding-aid for the collection (e.g. catalogue) • Description • An attribute of a Collection giving a short summary of the collection history and contents, etc.

7. Why is CLD important? (1) • Ideally, all metadata/retrieval is at the level of the work (item-level description) • But in the Real world … • Online ILD metadata not available • Legacy; Institutional policies • Wide variation in ILD structure and content standards • Between domains; within domains • Within single institutions!

8. Why is CLD important? (2) • CLD offers broader coverage • More stuff can be found • Cheaper to implement • High recall, low precision • Some metadata cannot be accommodated in ILD without extensive duplication • E.g. Collection title, Collector, Owner, Location, etc.

9. Why is CLD important? (3) • Collaborative management • Collaborative acquisition policies • Preservation and storage • Priorities for digitisation, wider access, etc. • Landscaping in distributed digital information environments • Portals • Broad overview, then more precise discovery

10. Landscaping Search term or Profile parameter e.g. name, subject, education level, accessibility Retrieve relevant CLDs to create broad "map" of concentrations of resources: peaks of significance; "lodes" for further exploration CLDs link to digital collections, and online (analytic) finding aids Local ILDs for resource discovery: cross-searching possible with Z39.50/OAI

11. Development of CLD in UK • Entity-relationship model • Michael Heaney • Also covers analytic finding aids: collection-descriptions (C-Ds) • Database schema • For RSLP by UKOLN; simplifies Heaney’s model • Implementation • JISC IE Services Registry; simplifies RSLP

12. Heaney’s Analytic Model

13. Heaney's components • Entities • Collection; Agent; Location • Relationships • Collection:IsLocatedIn:Location • Administrator[Agent]:Administers:Location • Collector[Agent]:Collects:Collection • * Collection:HasPart:Collection • * Collection:IsDescribedBy:C-D[Collection] * Heaney focussed on single collections

14. CLD in practice (1) • Collection titles • If no specific title, derive from name of institution or user group defining the collection • Collection hierarchies • Multi-level granularity (6 levels in SWOP) • Polyhierarchy: one physical super-collection, but many virtual • Data redundancy; inheritance from super-collection • E.g. location, owner, access

15. CLD in practice (2) • Content interoperability • Cross-searching names and subjects in landscapes • Varying standards in different organizations • Agent names (persons and organizations) • Much wider range than item-level description • Owners, administrators in addition to creators, subjects, to be included in name authority files • Subjects • Collections on specific subjects • General collections; subject strengths

16. CLD in practice (3) • Dates • 18th century books on classical Greece collected from 1890 to 1930 – dates of: manufacture; subject; aggregation • Significance • Quantity vs quality; subjective; dynamic • 5 first editions with manuscript notes by Robert Burns, or 50000 items by and about Burns?

17. SCONE story (1) • CAIRNS • Z39.50 clump for distributed searching • Metadata for Z servers (service-level description!) • Associated metadata for collection-descriptions (catalogue indexes, etc.) • Associated metadata for CLDs • Access (SQL) database

18. SCONE story (2) • SCONE project • Collaborative collection management • HE/FE plus public libraries sector (SEED) • CDLR as lead site • Test datasets • SLIR; SWOP; ESH; Websites • Then Heaney's model and RSLP schema • SCONE service • 2600 CLDs

19. SCONE story (3) • SQL database (MS SQL Server) • Uses Heaney’s analysis rather than RSLP • Fully relational, normal form • Incorporates additional metadata not specified • Subject strengths (RCO) • Service-level description elements (CAIRNS) • ColdFusion Web data server • DreamWeaver Website maintenance

20. SCONE futures • CC-interop (COPAC/Clumps interoperability) project • Cross-relates SCONE to major UK schemas • SCONE clone for RIDING clump • HaIRST (institutional resources) and SPEIR (Scottish portals) projects • SCONE used for landscaping

21. JISC Information Environment • “the set of network or online services that support publishing and use of information and learning resources” • Functional model for resource discovery has 4 stages • Observes that some components already exist or are under development

22. JISC IE Functional Model • 1: Enter • Initial landscape: presentation of collections & services for local service or user profile • 2: Survey • Modify set of collections & services • 3: Discover • Item-level searching using distributed (z39.50) or physical (OAI harvested; FTP) union catalogue • 4: Detail • Further information about items

23. IE for Scotland (A) Entry Initial landscape [Scottish Cultural Portal; SCONE] Survey Collection descriptions service [SCONE] Landscaper Collection-level descriptions

24. IE for Scotland (B) Discover Distributed union catalogue [CAIRNS] Harvested union catalogue [HaIRST] Union catalogue [COPAC] Detail Item metadata Item metadata Item metadata Item metadata

25. Links • Me • g.dunsire@strath.ac.uk • SCONE service • http://scone.strath.ac.uk/service/index.cfm • “About SCONE” for more information • CDLR (other projects) • http://cdlr.strath.ac.uk • JISC Information Environment • http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=about_info_env