[Air-l] AoIR communal data-database

[Suzie Allard]

I thought a quick note on openarchives.org might help in the discussion. The
openarchives.org metadata set is designed to promote low barrier
interoperability therefore it's design, while elegant, is simple.  It is
also designed to be flexible and allow for communities to add elements to
create metadata formats that are unique to their discipline (or in our case
multidisciplines!)   I believe that we could use the openarchives set to
document that  a  dataset in the collection may  already be classified with
an existing metadata format such as one specified by the Federal Geographic
Data Committee, so it could then be searched on those elements in a
secondary action.

The suggestion of using the openarchives approach sounds promising because
the openarchives.org concept is useful in promoting the use of and
integration of materials that may be resident in depositories in a
distributed environment  by using a data-provider/service provider model and
defining the mechanism for metadata harvesting.  It has its basis in Dublin
Core, which is pretty simple to use and therefore promotes self-archiving by
authors. 

Despite its name, openarchives.org does not promote any policy about wide
accessibility of content; that decision is left to the data-providers, so
AoIR could make the choice of unlimited/limited access.

This AoIR project sounds very interesting and useful too!
Suzie


> From: Charlie Hendricksen <veritas at u.washington.edu>
> Organization: Department of Geography, University of Washington
> Reply-To: air-l at aoir.org
> Date: Sun, 18 Nov 2001 13:35:03 -0700
> To: air-l at aoir.org
> Subject: Re: [Air-l] AoIR communal data-database
> 
> OK, there is a proposal: the metadata should be based on the
> openarchives.org database.  Now, in total ignorance of that metadata
> set, let me say that that metadata set might be so extensive that the
> data providers would be discouraged from submitting their metadata.
> There is an exquisite balance between the work required to input
> metadata and the rewards for participating in such a project.  In my
> experience that balance goes to simplicity of an order that makes the
> metadata marginally useful.  I would argue for a custom metadata set
> -- that argument based on experience with the hopelessly complex
> metadata standards of the Federal Geographic Data Committee.
> 
> jeremy hunsinger wrote:
>> 
>> yes, but I don't think one needs to have metadata at the level of
>> variables.  People might want that data, then they should see if the
>> study might have that information, download the study and look for it
>> themselves.  I think one needs to have it at the level of the study.
>> I'm assuming that this will all be in a database eventually, so
>> categories such as the openarchives.org metadata set would be best, it
>> is a standard, it describes unique objects like a study, etc.
>> 
>> the lack of exact and complete metadata has not hindered the development
>> of such projects in the past, i guess in the end it is always a balance
>> between the practical and the ideal situations.
>> 
>> On Sunday, November 18, 2001, at 03:05 PM, Charlie Hendricksen wrote:
>> 
>>> Yes, the "codebook" for the study should have all the metadata
>>> necessary.  But are the codebooks searchable?  If the repository is of
>>> any size at all, then it needs to be searchable.  Would you like to
>>> read all the codebooks in order to see if there was any data you could
>>> use?  If the codebooks are disassembled and placed in a database that
>>> allows searching then the repository is very useful.  My guess is that
>>> codebooks are idiosyncratic and of wildly varying quality.  This means
>>> that the metadata would be incomplete in many cases.
>>> 
>>> This raises the issue of what the metadata should include.
>> jeremy hunsinger
>> on the ibook
>> www.cddc.vt.edu
>> www.cddc.vt.edu/jeremy
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
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>> Air-l at aoir.org
>> http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l
> 
> -- 
> Charlie Hendricksen   veritas at u.washington.edu
> 
> "Information technology structures human relationships."
> "Models relate concepts."
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> Air-l at aoir.org
> http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l
> 


************************************************************
Suzie Allard, KY Opportunity Fellow
University of Kentucky   (859)257-3771
College of Communications and Information Studies
School of Library and Information Science
520 King Library South, Lexington, KY  40506-0039
e-mail: slalla0 at uky.edu
homepage: http://sac.uky.edu/~slalla0/
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