1 Introducing Technical Standards Paul Miller Interoperability Focus UK Office for Library & Information Networking (U KOLN ) [email protected]

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Introducing Technical Standards

Paul Miller

Interoperability FocusUK Office for Library & Information Networking (UKOLN)

[email protected] http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/

UKOLN is funded by Resource: the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the Further and Higher Education Funding Councils, as well as by project funding from JISC and the EU. UKOLN also receives support from the Universities of Bath and Hull where staff are based.

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Joined up Talking

e–Government

A Netful of Jewels

e–Culture“the Semantic Web”

New Library: the People’s Network

Virtual Museum of Canada.

MEG

e–*

e–University

CIMI

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Joined up Building

The People’s Network

Distributed National Electronic Resource

ukonline.gov / firstgov.gov / *.gov

AMICO

CHIN.

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Joined up Doing= Interoperability

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What is interoperability?

“to be interoperable, one should actively be engaged in the ongoing

process of ensuring that the systems, procedures and culture of an organisation are managed in such a way as to maximise opportunities for exchange and re-use of information, whether internally or externally.”

See www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue24/interoperability/See www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue24/interoperability/

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Why interoperate?

because, at the end of the day, the user really doesn’t care which high quality data repository gives them the stuff they want…

…so long as they can get it!.

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Why interoperate?

• The cultural heritage need not respect organisational views we impose upon it• A virtual museum of all Da Vinci’s work?• All of the Parthenon stonework in one place,

virtually if not in reality?• The content of the British Museum available

to people in a language other than English?• The paintings of the Louvre, explained to a

seven year–old?• Books, archival folios, and physical objects

relating to a topic available together?.

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Why interoperate?

• Internally…• to manage our information better

• Externally…• to be more visible• to meet the needs of our (often remote) users• to align with ‘portal’, etc., developments• To minimise manual repackaging of information

in response to every request, exhiblet, etc..

See www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue24/interoperability/See www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue24/interoperability/

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How to interoperate…

• Depends upon the situation, of course, but…

standards

standards

standards!de facto

de jure

national

international

community

initiative

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So… why use standards?

• Benefit from the expertise of others• Enforce rigour in internal practices• Facilitate interoperability (and access)

– NOF projects receive public money, for the public good

– Considered deployment of standard solutions makes access to your resources feasible for many.

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What do standards do?

• Help identify what’s important– CIMI’s “Access Points”– Mandatory fields

• Allow for consistent use of terminology– Name Authority Files– Thesauri– Look–up tables

• Enable internal and external data exchange or access

• Reduce duplication of effort• Minimise (hopefully!) wasted effort• Reflect consensus.

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What types of standard are there?

• Terminology– ‘Roma’, not ‘Rome’– ‘Roma’ is preferred to ‘Rome’

• Format– ‘Miller, A.P. 1971–’, not ‘Paul Miller’

• ‘Semantics’– A gross simplification, and a very big bucket– ‘Creator’, ‘Subject’, ‘Title’, ‘Description’…

• Syntax– <RDF xmlns = “http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-rdf-syntax#”>

• Transfer– ftp://ftp.niso.org/… .

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The nice thing about standards…

…is that there are so many to choose from!

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Standard solutions

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nof Standards Guidelines

• Based upon Digital Life Cycle

• Include some requirements with which you must comply• but mostly guidance and advice

• Help you choose appropriate standards

• Provide pointers and tips• help you ask the right questions… .

See www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk/nof/technicalstandards.htmlSee www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk/nof/technicalstandards.html

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The Digital Life Cycle

Creation

Management

Collection Development

Access

(Repackaging).

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What is ‘Metadata’?

– meaningless jargon

– ora fashionable, and terribly misused, term for what we’ve always done

– or“a means of turning data into information”

– and“data about data”

– andthe name of a person (‘Tony Blair’)

– andthe title of a book (‘The Name of the Rose’).

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What is ‘Metadata’?

• Metadata exists for almost anything;• People• Places• Objects• Concepts• Web pages• Databases.

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What is ‘Metadata’?

• Metadata fulfils three main functions;• Description of resource content

– “What is it?”

• Description of resource form– “How is it constructed?”

• Description of resource use– “Can I afford it?”.

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Challenges

Many flavours of metadatawhich one do I use?

Managing changenew varieties, and evolution of

existing forms

Tension between functionality and simplicity, extensibility and interoperability

Functions, features, and cool stuff Simplicity and interoperability

Opportunities

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Introducing the Dublin Core

• An attempt to improve resource discovery on the Web

– now adopted more broadly

• Building an interdisciplinary consensus about a core element set for resource discovery

– simple and intuitive– cross–disciplinary — not just libraries!!– international– open and consensual (DC–8 in Ottawa)– flexible.

See purl.org/dc/See purl.org/dc/

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• 15 elements of descriptive metadata• All elements optional• All elements repeatable• The whole is extensible

– offers a starting point for semantically richer descriptions

• Interdisciplinary– libraries, government, museums,

archives…

• International– available in more than 20 languages, with

more on the way...

Introducing the Dublin Core

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• Title• Creator• Subject• Description• Publisher• Contributor• Date• Type

• Format• Identifier• Source• Language• Relation• Coverage• Rights

purl.org/dc/

Introducing the Dublin Core

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Some summary

• Technical standards make the job easier in the long run• but can make it harder to get started

• There is rarely a ‘right’ standard for all situations• so the NOF guidelines often say you must do

something, without being specific about how• know who your audience is, what you have to

offer, and what your purpose/message is

• NOF’s technical standards align you with other emerging developments.

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See www.ukoln.ac.uk/nof/support/See www.ukoln.ac.uk/nof/support/

Mail [email protected] [email protected]

Join www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/nof-digi/Join www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/nof-digi/