Group items tagged

It is essential to conform to, or at the very least map to, known community standards for metadata, rather than using proprietary or homegrown schemes. However, simply because a particular metadata scheme is considered a standard does not necessarily mean that it is the appropriate standard for any given collection.

One of the very first steps in implementing a metadata strategy is to analyze and identify the most appropriate metadata standard—or set of standards—for your collections. The metadata scheme(s) and controlled vocabularies and thesauri that have been developed for specific communities and types of materials should be carefully researched and analyzed, and the most appropriate ones selected and implemented. 

In some cases, the best strategy may be to utilize two or more metadata schemes in an integrated manner.

Administrative metadata is information intended to facilitate the management of resources. It includes information such as when and how an object was created, who is responsible for controlling access to or archiving the content, what processing activities have been performed in relation to it, and what restrictions on access or use apply.

Technical metadata and preservation metadata are particular types of administrative metadata. Technical metadata describes digital files and includes capture information, format, file size, checksum, sampling frequencies, and similar characteristics.

Structural metadata relates the pieces of a compound object together and/or bundles related objects into a package. For example, if a book is digitized as individual page images, structural metadata can record information concerning the order of files (page numbering) and how they relate to the logical structure of the book (table of contents) is also required.

Good metadata conforms to community standards in a way that is appropriate to the materials in the collection, users of the collection

Good metadata supports interoperability

Good metadata uses authority control and content standards to describe objects

The linkage between a metadata record and the resource it describes may take one of two forms: elements may be contained in a record separate from the item, as in the case of the library's catalog record; or the metadata may be embedded in the resource itself.

The Dublin Core metadata standard is a simple yet effective element set for describing a wide range of networked resources. The Dublin Core standard includes two levels: Simple and Qualified. Simple Dublin Core comprises fifteen elements; Qualified Dublin Core includes three additional elements (Audience, Provenance and RightsHolder), as well as a group of element refinements (also called qualifiers) that refine the semantics of the elements in ways that may be useful in resource discovery.

Another way to look at Dublin Core is as a "small language for making a particular class of statements about resources". In this language, there are two classes of terms -- elements (nouns) and qualifiers (adjectives) -- which can be arranged into a simple pattern of statements.

Good metadata should be coherent, meaningful, and useful in global contexts beyond those in which it was created.

The creation of accessible, meaningful shared collections implies responsibilities on both the part of the data providers

The goal of interoperability is to help users find and access information objects that are distributed across domains and institutions.

What is a content strategy? A content strategy reveals who the end users are, the goals they are pursuing and what tasks they must do to reach the goals. The content strategy explicitly describes what type of information end users need to do the tasks, which gives us the content to include and not include in a manual and how to organize it to make content searchable. A content strategy shall answer a number of questions (for example, open the document via link "information design questions" On http://www.sesam-info.net/planning.htm). The answers are sometimes referred to as the information model.

The content strategy shall also deal with areas such as metadata, reuse strategy, creation and release processes, publishing mechanisms, content ownership and responsibility, tools etc.

Let us elaborate two types of content creation organizations within the technical communication domain: Explicit and implicit organizations.  In the implicit organization there are no content strategy written down. Each member (technical writer, SME etc) has their own view on what content they believe end users need. In the best of worlds these views are aligned without the members having discussed it. In other implicit organizations an information designer has taken the role to plan and design the content (together with the team or not). But the strategy and principle that the information designer is following may not be communicated or understood by the technical writers or SMEs. So the information designer has to be consulted every time a new manual is developed or a macro content change is proposed in an existing manual. In explicit organizations the strategy and principles are written down and communicated.

Attributes of distributed objects should be expressed using standard controlled terms whenever possible.

Factors to consider include:

Tools to support the use of the vocabulary. Is there an online thesaurus? Can it be incorporated into the collection’s search system? Are there cross-references and related terms?

Terms and conditions of use include the copyright status of the object—whether it is in the public domain or is copyright protected—and any restrictions on use. The user should be informed how to obtain permission for restricted uses and how to cite the material for allowed uses.

Content that is personalized, easily found, appropriately scoped, and pleasant to interact with has a name: Adaptive Content

content should adapt to the reader as well as to the device.

Among its high points for alignment with direct-to-Web content delivery solutions, DITA provides: Close affinity to Web page writing conventions and length Intentional similarity of inner content markup names (p, ul, ol, dl, etc.) A close match in its title, short description, and body structure to the way most Web CMS tools manage their content. Maps that work so very well for representing collections of content.