Jenn Riley von der Indiana University Library hat unter dem Titel “Seeing Standards: A Visualization of the Metadata Universe” ein umfangreiches Schaubild zu Metadatenstandards entwickelt. Die darin enthaltenen 105 Standards sind nach Communities und funktionaler Ausrichtung geordnet. In einer begleitenden Broschüre wird jeder Standard näher erläutert und jeweils ein weiterführender Link angegeben.

http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/~jenlrile/metadatamap/

A new W3C Incubator Group on Library Linked Data (”LLD XG”) was announced on May 21 with the mission of helping to “increase global interoperability of library data on the Web by bringing together people involved in semantic Web activities — focusing on Linked Data — in the library community and beyond, building on existing initiatives, and identifying collaboration tracks for the future” [1,2,3].

The forty participants of the LLD XG represent nineteen W3C member organizations — including major libraries and library consortia, universities, research organizations, funding bodies, private companies, and non-profit organizations from twelve countries — with nine invited experts. The LLD XG conducts its work on a wiki [5] and on a mailing list with a world-readable Web archive [6] and RSS feed [7]. In addition, a public wiki [8] and mailing list [9] have been set up for members of the general public interested in discussing the work of the incubator group or providing feedback on its deliverables. The group has begun to gather use cases and case studies demonstrating successful implementation of Linked Data technologies [10] and is discussing the scope and focus of its remaining eleven months of activity [11].

W3C Incubator Activities are chartered for a period of one year or less to explore “innovative ideas for specifications, guidelines, and applications that are not (or not yet) clear candidates as Web standards developed through the more thorough process afforded by the W3C Recommendation Track” [12]. The LLD XG will be considered a success “if it can elaborate a state of the art report on the adoption of Linked data principles and perspective in the library domain and related sectors, leading to a clear and agreed view regarding what further standards and guidelines should be developed, and what organization should be set up in order to develop them” [3].

[1] http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/lld/
[2] http://www.w3.org/News/2010#entry-8803
[3] http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/lld/charter
[4] http://www.w3.org/2000/09/dbwg/details?group=44833&public=1
[5] http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/lld/wiki/Main_Page
[6] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-xg-lld/
[7] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-xg-lld/feed.rss
[8] http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/wiki/LLD
[9] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-lld/
[10] http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/lld/wiki/UseCases
[11] http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/lld/wiki/Topics
[12] http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/#About

ISO 25964 “Thesauri and interoperability with other vocabularies” is the first thesaurus standard explicitly featuring a data model for monolingual and multilingual thesauri, recommendations for exchange formats and protocols and an XML schema. Part 1: “Thesauri for information retrieval”, officially numbered ISO/DIS 25964-1, has been released as a draft available for public comment until the end of February 2010 (the ballot will end March 26).

Clause 15 describes the data model underpinning a XML schema, presented both using UML (Fig. 15) and in tabular format. The full range of options described in the standard is accommodated. It models logically the underlying structure of thesaurus data, not necessarily representing the way data is held within a given computer system. The five main classes appearing are Thesaurus, ThesaurusConcept, ThesaurusTerm, ThesaurusArray and Note. How to see the text and to comment on it, has been described in an earlier blog message [1].

The XML schema for data exchange, derived from the data model, is included in the standard as an informative appendix (Annex B), and is available free of charge at [2]. The schema may be used for electronically transmitting a whole thesaurus or portions of a thesaurus. Everybody is invited to give feedback on the draft schema by advancing from that page to the comments page for the schema and clicking on the “Add a Comment” link there. In addition, a test XML document using the schema is available as well. All comments will be open for public viewing. Links to the schema are also provided at the ISO 25964 public project page [3].

One of the predecessors to the new thesaurus standard is BS 8723. A data model and XML schema developed in the context of this standard and documented in Part 5 of the standard (BS 8723-5), dealing with exchange formats and protocols for interoperability, is freely available for comparison at [4].

[1] http://metadaten-twr.org/2009/11/06/commenting-and-balloting-on-the-new-draft-international-thesaurus-standard-opened/
[2] http://www.niso.org/schemas/iso25964/
[3] http://www.niso.org/workrooms/iso25964/
[4] http://schemas.bs8723.org/Model.aspx

Author: Juha Hakala

Director, IT development, The National Library of Finland

juha.hakala@helsinki.fi

Member of the ISNI working group

Abstract:
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) [1] is developing the International Standard Name Identifier (ISO 27729) as a standard identifier for public identities of parties. At the time of writing (December 2009) the document has reached Draft International Standard status. Much information is available at http://www.isni.org/ [2], including a useful FAQ [3]. This article describes the standard and potential implementation challenges. Read the rest of this entry »

DIMAG and IngestList at the Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg

Author: Dr. Christian Keitel

In digital archiving, doing something is better than doing nothing at all. Unfortunately, doing something even very basic one can run into problems. Many problems are based on the short lifespan of formats and data carriers. In other words, how can we transfer a logical representation with all its significant properties to another physical form? Is it possible to validate the new form in an automated way? This article reports how the Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg tries to address these topics. Read the rest of this entry »