Notes On Describing Your Digital Resources
INTELLECTUAL CONTENT FIELD NOTES
The actual title of the content of the resource, or a brief descriptive phrase.
- If you have multiple titles, you may qualify them (i.e. Primary Title, Variant Title, Series Title, etc).
- Please be sure to specify the primary title, as this is the title that will be used for search result displays and prominent headings.
Agent (At least one agent of any type is required)
The name(s) of individuals or organizations that bear some important relationship to the content.
- Agents have types (creator, provider, contributor) and one of these three types is also required to be specified in the data.
- Agents may also have roles (author, editor, publisher, etc.). We recommend that you specify an agent role, but it is not required. Develop a standard list of terminology for roles and use the terms consistently.
Examples:
Title Agent Name Agent Type Agent Role Rotunda Jefferson, Thomas creator architect The letters of Thomas Jefferson Jefferson, Thomas creator author Betts, Edwin Morris contributor editor Mrs. Putnam Catlin [painting] Smithsonian American Art Museum provider respository The nutcracker : a dimensional storybook Simon & Schuster provider publisher
- Personal names generally should be last name, first name, middle name or initial.
- Organizations or corporations should be in natural name order.
- Part of the purpose of a name is to identify the resource bibliographically. The other purpose is to distinguish one person/entity from another with the same name. We highly recommend, therefore, that you use an authorized list of names:
- From those websites, you can search for a personal or corporate name. Use the form of the name found in the authority file.
- If you cannot find an already established form, you can use the item in hand to establish a form and the form you establish should be unique (i.e. not conflict with a form already established for a person/organization/corporation by the same name). Add as much information as needed to establish uniqueness. For personal names, this might include full middle names, Jr./Sr., dates, etc. For organizations/corporations, this might include place information. Spell out abbreviations or include a key with your documentation.
- Document the scheme used (i.e. LC or Getty). If you are mixing schemes within your database, each record will need to specify the scheme you have used.
- You may also have dates for your agents (i.e. author birthdate/deathdate, an organizations's date founded, etc.). Put dates in their own field and formulate them according to the guidelines for dates.
Agent Name Agent Dates Jefferson, Thomas 1743-1826 Cruise, Tom 1962-
- An agent of some type is required. If you do not have an agent, you may use "unknown". Do not leave this field blank.
Date (At least one date of any type is required)
Date or date range for the intellectual content. This is the date when something was created, built, or published, not the date represented by the content.
- A novel published in 2004 about 14th century France -- Date is 2004.
- A painting created in 1896 depicting an event in 1545 -- Date is 1896.
See Date Coverage for dates represented by the content. Also see Digital Resource Date for encoding the date on which your digital file was created.
- Specific days (as for a letter), specific years (as for creation or publication dates), date ranges, or textual date strings all fall under Date. Please, however, distinguish numeric dates in different fields from textual date information. In order to migrate data later this distinction is crucial.
- Numeric dates should be in YYYYMMDD format (MMDD are optional).
- Dates may also have types (publication, creation, etc.). We recommend that you specify a date type, but it is not required. Develop a standard list of terminology for types and use the terms consistently.
Examples:
Date Numeric Date Type Date Textual 1954 publication 18600112 creation (for January 12, 1860) 190010 creation (for October 1900) 1990-2004 publication (for date ranges) creation 18th century creation spring 2004
- If you need to indicate certainty or eras, please also do so in separate fields. Unless otherwise specified, dates will assumed to be AD.
Date Numeric Date Textual Date Certainty Date Era 1954 circa 18th century uncertain 333 circa BC
- A date of some type is required. If you do not have a date, do your best to estimate a date range (i.e. 12th-14th century). If absolutely necessary, you may use "unknown". Do not leave this field blank.
A physical location associated with the creation of the content. This is the place where something was published, created, or is located, not the place represented by the content.
- A novel published in New York about 14th century France -- Place is New York
- The Parthenon -- Place is Athens.
See Place Coverage for places represented by the resource.
- Part of the purpose of a place name is to identify the resource bibliographically. The other purpose is to distinguish one place from another with the same name. We highly recommend, therefore, that you use an authorized list of place names.
- The Getty Thesaurus for Geographic Names
- The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) -- for U.S. places
- GEOnet -- for international places
- From those websites, you can search for place names. Use the form of the name found in the authority file.
- If you cannot find an already established form for a place, you can use the item in hand to establish a form and the form you establish should be unique (i.e. not conflict with a form already established for a place by the same name). Add as much information (state, country, etc.) as needed to establish uniqueness.
- Document the scheme used (i.e. LC, Getty, GNIS, GeoNet). If you are mixing schemes within your database, each record will need to specify the scheme you have used.
- Places may also have types (publication, creation, former location, current location etc.). We recommend that you specify a place type, but it is not required. Develop a standard list of terminology for types and use the terms consistently.
- If you wish to use longitude and latitude, please email Jocelyn Olson for assistance in structuring your data.
The extent of the resource (number of pages of the print book), physical dimensions (20 ft. x 10 ft.), the medium (bronze), materials (oil, watercolor), etc.
- Physical Description will have types (extent, medium, dimensions, materials, etc.).
- If all of the Physical Descriptions in your database are of the same type, please just make a note of that information in your documentation.
- If you are using multiple types (i.e. dimensions and medium), each record will need to contain separate fields for each type.
Content Type / Resource Type (Required)
Content type: The nature of the content being described.
Resource type: The type of digital object being described
- If all of the resources in your database are of the same Content Type/Resource Type, please just make a note of that information in your documentation.
- If you are mixing Content Types/Resource Types in your database, each record will need to specify the resource's Type.
- Choose from the following:
Type Definition Examples Content
Type
Typetext A resource whose content is primarily words for reading Books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists, TEI markup. image A static visual representation. Paintings, drawings, photographs, graphic designs, plans, and maps, as well as digital page images of books or musical scores. movingimage A series of visual representations that, when shown in succession, impart an impression of motion. Animations, movies, television programs, videos, zoetropes, or visual output from a simulation. physicalobject An inanimate, three-dimensional object or substance. A building, a computer, the great pyramid, a sculpture. dataset Information encoded in a defined structure (for example, lists, tables, and databases), intended to be useful for direct machine processing. GIS data event A non-persistent, time-based occurrence. Exhibition, web-cast, conference, workshop, open-day, performance, battle, trial, wedding, tea-party, conflagration. sound A resource whose content is primarily intended to be rendered as audio. A music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. collection An aggregation of items of varying types Archival records which are not described item-by-item but rather at a collection level. interactiveresource A resource which requires interaction from the user to be understood, executed, or experienced. Forms on web pages, applets, multimedia learning objects, chat services, virtual reality
- This is a standardized list. If your content is not represented by one of these terms, please email Jocelyn Olson.
- Examples:
Content Type Resource Type A letter: the intellectual content described is text; the digital resource is TEI markup. text text A letter: the intellectual content described is text; the digital resource is a page image. text image A building: the intellectual content described is the physical building; the digital resource is a photograph of the building. physicalobject image A painting: the intellectual content described is the original painting; the digital resource is a photograph of the painting. image image
- If needed, you may provide additional information to describe the form of your content more specifically, but it is not required.
Type Form (can be repeatable) image photograph text letter physicalobject church,cathedral
DIGITAL RESOURCE FIELD NOTES
A name/code for each resource which is unique within your database.
- Follow a consistent naming scheme and document your scheme.
- Your filenames should correspond to the identifier for your digital resource.
Examples:
Title Identifer Filenames Rotunda UVA7654 UVA7654_thumbnail.jpg UVA7654_screensize.jpg Thomas Jefferson's Letter to James Monroe X123 X123_markup.xml X123_imagePage1.jpg X123_imagePage2.jpg
The level of access that a member of the UVa community or the general public can have to this resource.
- If all of the resources in your database have the same access rights, please just make note of that information in your documentation.
- If you are mixing Access Rights in your database, each record will need to specify the resource's rights.
- Choose one of the following. You may use the codes or the text strings as you prefer.
Machine processable data Display values public Publicly accessible uva Accessible to UVa community only viva Accessible to VIVA community only restricted Restricted to Library staff for management only Note: VIVA is the Virtual Library of Virginia. UVa hosts a number of resources on their behalf.
- In order for the Library to take ownership of your resource and/or commit to digital preservation, your Access Rights must confirm to one of the above. If you have additional restrictions not accounted for above, please email Jocelyn Olson.
The date the digital file was created.
- This must be a specific numeric date in YYYYMMDD format.
- If you do not know the date when your file was created, use the earliest known date. If necessary, use the date the metadata record was created.
OPTIONAL FIELD NOTES
Descriptive text, remarks, or comments about the resource. This might include abstracts, summaries, notes, content descriptions, or other descriptions not included elsewhere.
- We recommend that you categorize your descriptions and qualify them in your database. Do not have single fields holding varying types of descriptions. For example, rather than having one Description field, use:
Title Description--Summary Description--Contents Description--Notes Gone with the wind Set during the American Civil War, this story focuses on the lives and loves of Southerners during this period and the hardships they endured. Title page autographed by Margaret Mitchell. Andy Warhol : the late work Vol. 1. Paintings & wallpapers -- v. 2. Photographs/films/videos/books/interviews -- v. 3. Texts. Exhibition catalog. Lewis and Clark and me : a dog's tale Seaman, Meriwether Lewis's Newfoundland dog, describes Lewis and Clark's expedition, which he accompanied from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean. Includes bibliographical references.
- Also, descriptions may be about the intellectual content (i.e. abstracts or summaries) or about the digital resource (i.e. "p. 10-20 were not scanned in this digital edition."). In your database, separate descriptions of intellectual content from descriptions of digital representations.
Description--ContentNotes Description--Digital ResourceNotes Catalog of an exhibition held at the Centre d'art contemporain Geneève, Jan. 25-April 28, 1996, and at the Museum für Gegenwartskunst Zürich, May 5-Sept. 15, 1996. Specialized software required to view this resource.
The language(s) of the intellectual content of the digital resource (languages(s) in which the text is written or the spoken language(s) of an audio or video resource). Visual images do not usually have a language unless there is significant text in a caption or in the image itself.
Topic of the resource. Typically the subject will be expressed as keywords or phrases that describe the subject content of the resource, or terms related to significant associations of people, events, or other contextual information.
- Please use a field labeled "Subject" only if your terms are drawn from an a standardized list. We recommend that you use either:
- Document the scheme used (i.e. LC or Getty). If you are mixing schemes within your database, each record will need to specify the scheme you have used.
- If you prefer to develop your own list of terms, use a field labeled "Keyword." We recommend that you develop a standard list of terminology and use the terms consistently.
- We encourage you to email Jocelyn Olson for assistance either in choosing/assigning LCSH or AAT terms or in developing your own list.
A physical location represented by the content (i.e. the geographic subject of a book or the representation of a place within a painting).
- A novel published in New York about 14th century France -- Place Coverage is France.
- A landscape painting of a building in Athens -- Place Coverage is Athens.
See Place for the place associated with the creation of the content.
- Part of the purpose of a place name is to identify the resource bibliographically. The other purpose is to distinguish one place from another with the same name. We highly recommend, therefore, that you use an authorized list of place names:
- The Getty Thesaurus for Geographic Names
- The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) -- for U.S. places
- GEOnet -- for international places
- From those websites, you can search for place names. Use the form of the name found in the authority file.
- If you cannot find an already established form for a place, you can use the item in hand to establish a form and the form you establish should be unique (i.e. not conflict with a form already established for a place by the same name). Add as much information (state, country, etc.) as needed to establish uniqueness.
- Document the scheme used (i.e. LC, Getty, GNIS, GeoNet). If you are mixing schemes within your database, each record will need to specify the scheme you have used.
- If you wish to use longitude and latitude, please email Jocelyn Olson.
Date or date range represented by the content (i.e. the temporal subject of a book). It is the date represented by the content, not the date something was created, or built, or published.
- A novel published in 2004 about 14th century France -- Date Coverage 14th century.
- A painting created in 1896 depicting an event in 1545 -- Date Coverage is 1545.
See Date for dates associated with the creation of the content.
- Specific days, specific years, date ranges, or textual date strings all fall under Date. In your database, however, please distinguish numeric dates in different fields from textual date information. In order to migrate data later this distinction is crucial.
- Numeric dates should be in YYYYMMDD format (MMDD are optional).
Examples:
Date Coverage Numeric Date Coverage Textual 1954 18600112 (for January 12, 1860) 190010 (for October 1900) 1990-2004 (for date ranges) 18th century spring 2004
- If you need to indicate certainty or eras, please also do so in separate fields. Unless otherwise specified, dates will assumed to be AD.
Date Coverage Numeric Date Coverage Certainty Date Coverage Era 1954 circa 1920 uncertain 333 circa BC
Used to relate two metadata records together, i.e. items in a set, issues of a newspaper, a painting located within a Church.
Relationships are very complicated! Generally, there should be a textual relationship note and an explicit link between the identifiers of both records. We strongly encourage you to email Jocelyn Olson if you would like to relate your metadata records.
A standard for the formatting of files so that they can be sent over the Internet.
- Mimetype is expressed as 2 parts separated by a slash "/".
- The first part is used to describe the general type of data (text, image, audio, video, application, multipart, message).
- The second part specifies the format for that type of data.
- Examples:
text/xml The digital resource is text written in xml. image/jpg The digital resource is an image, the image format is JPEG (.jpg) image/tif The digital resource is an image, the image format is TIFF (.tif) video/mpg The digital resource is a video, the video format is MPEG (.mpg) - For assistance with mimetypes, please email Jocelyn Olson.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
- Understanding Metadata (from NISO)
http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/UnderstandingMetadata.pdf
Description
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