Pete Johnston UKOLN, University of Bath Bath, BA2 7AY

1. Collections revealed:the role and practical application of collection descriptionsCIMI Forum,National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002 Pete Johnston UKOLN, University of Bath Bath, BA2 7AY cd-focus@ukoln.ac.uk http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ UKOLN is supported by:

2. Collections revealed: the role and practical application of collection description • The resource discovery context • Collections and services • Describing collections • Collection-level description in practice • A case study: CLD at The Natural History Museum • CIMI and CLD CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

3. UKOLN & collection-level description • Centre of expertise in digital information management • Core funding from JISC and Re:source • Policy & advice • Influencing policy • informing practice • Research & development • Advancing knowledge • Wide range of areas • Services • Information services (Ariadne, Cultivate Interactive) • Technical support/joint administration of Resource Discovery Network (RDN) http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

4. UKOLN & collection-level description • JISC eLib programme • range of digital library development projects • integrated access to distributed resources • architectural studies (MODELS) • simple collection description schema • RSLP Collection Description project • Analytical Model, RSLP CD Schema • Collection Description Focus • funded by RSLP, JISC, British Library, Re:source • “improve consistency/compatibility of approaches” • awareness-raising, consensus-building • support to implementers • dissemination of good practice CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

5. The resource discovery context • Initiatives to improve access to services • political/economic drivers • High-level strategies • UK “Modernising government” White paper • e-Government strategies • Better connectivity • public library networking through “People’s Network” • recognition of multiple channels of access • Improved resource disclosure • e.g. Full Disclosure, Research Support Libraries Programme, Archives Hub, Access 2 Archives, Scottish Archival Network etc CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

6. The resource discovery context • Collaborative approaches to service provision and resource management • Move away from “silo mentality” • Towards more “joined-up” approaches • Within museum domain • Across domains • Embedded in strategic initiatives for museums • Re:source (England) • Single Regional Agencies • “Preserving the Past for the Future”: Framework for Collections Management • Cross-domain projects CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

7. The resource discovery context • Growth of digital content creation programmes • making heritage (more) accessible • NOF-Digitise • £50m content creation programme • Over 1 million digital objects • supporting strategy for social inclusion, lifelong learning • Culture Online • “to widen access to resources of arts/cultural sector for purposes of learning and enjoyment” • Digital collections not “stand-alone” • Value as reusable components CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

8. The resource discovery context • Functional separation of content provision and presentation • user wants information relevant to task/activity • may see structural/organisational boundaries of content providers as unimportant! • content providers exposing content through multiple services, channels • service providers “surfacing” content from multiple (distributed) sources • … from web sites to “portals” • “A network service that provides a personalised, single point of access to a range of heterogeneous network services, local and remote, structured and unstructured” • Powell 2002 CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

9. Historic Environment Information Resources Portal (HEIRPORT) http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/heirport/ Cross-searching metadata databases of ADS, RCAHMS, SCRAN, Portable Antiquities Z39.50 search/retrieval protocol Dublin Core (in XML) CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

10. The resource discovery context • Wide implementation of XML-based standards/specifications for data exchange • Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting Version 2.0 • roots in scholarly publication community, but deployed more widely • Version 2.0 as stable release • lightweight protocol enabling sharing of metadata records • using XML over HTTP • alternative to distributed search model • Must provide simple/unqualified Dublin Core record (OAI provides XML Schema) • May provide other metadata formats (in XML) CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

11. Collection of physicalitems Collection of digitalmetadata records Website A Harvestvia OAI PMH OAI RepositoryA Portalsite C OAIRepository B OAIRepository X Website B Collection of digitalmetadata records Collection of digitalitems CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

12. Social Science Information Gateway http://www.sosig.ac.uk/ CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

13. CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

14. Resource Discovery Network Resource Finder http://www.rdn.ac.uk/ CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

15. CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

16. The resource discovery context • CIMI Dublin Core testbed • Evaluate use of DCMES for describing range of museum objects • 185,000 simple DC records from 10 contributors • CIMI Metadata Harvesting using OAI PMH • Development of repository • Harvesting metadata • Making aggregated metadata available for harvest • CIMI XML Schema for SPECTRUM • Recently made available for review (Oct 2002) • Semantics based on mda SPECTRUM standard • Enables encoding of rich descriptive information • Objects, related people, places, events CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

17. The resource discovery context • Access… • Integration… • Collaboration…. • “Metadata is data in the system which allows people and machines to do smarter things”“Interoperability as recombinant potential” (Dempsey, 2002) • The whole is more than the sum of the parts CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

18. Collections and services

19. What is a collection? • Collection • “an aggregation of items” • Aggregations of, e.g. • natural objects: fossils, mineral samples… • created objects: artefacts, documents, records… • digital resources: documents, images, multimedia objects, data, software… • digital surrogates of physical objects: documents, images… • metadata: catalogue records, item descriptions, collection-level descriptions (!)… CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

20. What is a collection? • Various criteria for aggregation, e.g. • By location • By type/form of item • By provenance of item • By source/ownership of item • By nature of item content • …. • Any number of items • Permanent, temporary • Discrete, distributed • Collections created with intent/purpose • “consciously formed” • collection development policies CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

21. What is a collection? • Functional granularity • “[T]here is no structure inherent in the model that requires or predisposes a particular level of aggregation. The institution should base its choices on its own pragmatic grounds, such as the level of detail required to make explicit those elements of the Collection-Description that the institution deems to be useful or necessary for the purposes of resource discovery or collection management. i.e. institutions should adopt a functional granularity approach.” • Heaney, 2000 CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

22. Collections and services • Collections are made available to users through services • Museum collections • collections of physical objects/items • collections of digital objects/items • collections of metadata records • describing physical objects • describing digital objects • Museum services • physical services • digital/network services CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

23. Collection of physicalitems Physicallocation Physicalservice Physical services make physical collections available at physical locations CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

24. Networkservice Website Collection of digitalitems Digitallocation Network services make digital collections available at digital locations CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

25. Collection of physicalitems Physicallocation Physicalservice Catalogueinterface Digital catalogue (Collection of digitalmetadata records) Digitallocation Networkservice Physical services make physical collections available at physical locations CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

26. Collection of digitalitems Digitallocation Website Networkservice Collection of digitalmetadata records Digitallocation Network services make digital collections available at digital locations CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

27. User wants to know… • Which collections are relevant to their requirement? • subject/coverage of items? • type? • legal status? • conditions of access/use? • etc • What services make those collections available? • location? • access? • etc CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

28. Website OAI repository Harvestvia OAI-PMH Collection of digitalmetadata records Z39.50 target Search/retrievevia Z39.50 SOAP receiver unstructured network service operationsvia SOAP structured network service Collections of digital metadata records made available through multiple network services CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

29. “User” wants to know… • Which collections are relevant to their requirement? • What services make those collections available? • “User” may be human researcher or software tool CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

30. The problem • “We’ve created this incredible constellation of collections, of pools of information accessible through the Net. And people can’t find which pool to look in” • (Lynch, 2002) CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

31. Describing collections

32. Collection description • Analytic • info about items in collection and their content • Indexing • info derived from items in collection • Hierarchic • info about collection as whole, and about items and their content (and relationships between items and whole) • Unitary • info about collection as whole, not about items • “collection-level description” • (typology from Heaney 2000) CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

33. Why collection-level description? • Enable collection provider to • disclose information about collections to potential users • overview of otherwise uncatalogued items • summary where item-level detail inappropriate/unavailable • manage collections • audit/review holdings internally • manage in collaboration with other providers • assess priorities for item-level cataloguing • inform strategic planning • institutional, cross-institutional, regional, sectoral, national…. CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

34. Why collection-level description? • Enable user to • discover/locate collections • select collections to explore/search on basis of summary description e.g. • content/coverage, access conditions, resource type • compare collections as broadly similar objects (even where items heterogeneous) • understand conditions of access & use • interpret collections • provenance, context, relationships • Enable software agents to • select collections to search on behalf of user • e.g. on basis of profile/preferences • control searches across collections CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

35. What information should collection-level description provide? • IMLS on describing collections… • “Collections should be described so that a user can discover important characteristics of the collection, including scope, format, restrictions on access, ownership, and any information significant for determining the collection’s authenticity, integrity and interpretation.” • IMLS Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

36. Approaches to CLD in archives • “Collections” defined by provenance of (unique, physical) items • records of organisation or individual • principle that value of individual record derives from context, relationships • (Mainly) physical collections made available by physical services • Archival description • emphasis on “multi-level” resource description • hierarchical collection description • well-established standards e.g. ISAD(G), EAD CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

37. Approaches to CLD in archives • Encoded Archival Description (EAD) • SGML/XML Document Type Definition for encoding archival finding aids • Owned/maintained by Society of American Archivists/Library of Congress • Hierarchical finding-aids • “Structured document” approach • Designed to encompass broad range of existing practice • Basis of established services • Online Archive of California • RLG Archival Resources • UK Public Record Office, Archives Hub, A2A etc http://www.loc.gov/ead/ CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

38. Approaches to CLD in libraries • Focus on description of (non-unique, physical) item • well-established standards (MARC, AACR2) • shared cataloguing • emphasis on discovery • Collections defined by • location • subject • Until recently, CLD informal, unstructured • some use of MARC for CLD (especially in USA) • deployment of RSLP CD schema by RSLP projects CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

39. Approaches to CLD in libraries • RSLP Collection Description project • Michael Heaney, An Analytical Model of Collections and their Catalogues • Entity-Relationship model • Implementation independent • Based mainly on library/archival view of ‘collection’ • but intended to be applicable across wide range of collection types • Functionally (IFLA FRBR) concerned with : • Finding (provide access points for discovery) • Identifying (describe sufficiently well for user interpretation) http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/rslp/ CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

40. Approaches to CLD in libraries • RSLP Collection Description schema • Andy Powell (UKOLN) • structured set of metadata attributes • some simplification of model • description of subset of entities in model • attributes based on Dublin Core Element Set where possible • RSLP CD schema supports creation of “unitary” collection description • simple high-level description • not a substitute for richer CLD schema • RSLP CD instance • set of linked descriptions of several resources CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

41. creates Creator Content is-embodied-in produces Producer Item is-gathered-into Collector collects Collection owns Owner is-located-in administers Administrator Location RSLP CD Model and Schema (simplified) CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

42. Approaches to CLD for digital resources • Some description of aggregates of resources • use of general metadata schemas (e.g. DC, GILS) • application-specific, protocol-specific approaches • Evolution of approaches to creating digital collections • “proof of concept” (technological focus?) • greater attention to custodianship, use • focus on integration, reuse, interoperability, sustainability • (Cole 2002, Besser 2002) • Integration requires shared conventions for talking about collections • growing interest in collection-level metadata CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

43. Approaches to CLD in museums • Focus on description of (unique, physical) object • for management more than discovery? • But concept of “collection” is present • Various criteria • type/form of item • subject • ownership/source • audience/purpose • Some CLD (maybe not called CLD…!) • e.g. guides to holdings, directories, gateways CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

44. Approaches to CLD in museums • CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model draft v3.3.2, 31 July 2002 • E78 Collection • Subclass of: Physical Man-Made Stuff • Scope Note: This entity describes an aggregate of items, which is maintained by an Actor following a plan of cultural relevance over time. Things may be added or taken out of a collection in pursuit of this plan. A collection is designed for a certain public, and the conservation of the collected items is normally catered for. • (emphasis added) CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

45. FENSCOREhttp://fenscore.man.ac.uk/ set up in early 1980's CLDs for UK biological collections, other than those in the NHM CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

46. Cornucopiahttp://www.cornucopia.org.uk/ Service provided by Re:source 1800 institution-level records, collection-level data from regional “collection mapping” exercises Current work to expand coverage, enhance interoperability CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

47. 24 Hour Museumhttp://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/ Launched by mda/Campaign for Museums, now independent charity with funding from DCMS/Re:source Institution records, plus events/articles/educational resources; virtual exhibits Potential for embedding CLDs from Cornucopia CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

48. Approaches to CLD in museums • Project/service specific approaches • Informal? • Limited standardisation? • However, growing interest in • repurposing management data to support disclosure • sharing data across systems • Requires harmonisation of approaches • some use of Encoded Archival Description DTD • Museums in the Online Archive of California • The Natural History Museum • some use of RSLP CD schema • Crossroads (West Midlands), Find It In London • building consensus on community schema e.g. BioCase CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002

49. Collection-level descriptionin practice

50. Collection-level description & Research Support Libraries Programme • Support for academic researchers • disclosure of collections • discovery of/access to collections • collaborative management of collections • Collections in RSLP • projects describing primarily collections of physical items (library/archive) • projects also describing digital catalogues (which describe physical items) • collections of metadata records http://www.rslp.ac.uk/ CIMI Forum, Edinburgh, 31 October 2002