Pasquale J. Festa INF384C – Organizing and Providing Access to Information Prof. Efron 2.1.2007 Metadata, Dublin Core and OAI This week’s readings work to explain the ways in which metadata, the Dublin Core system for metadata creation and organization and the OAI Interoperability framework create a structure for organizing and accessing information from institutional repositories. Metadata is most simply defined as data about data. It is a system of built data much akin to the manner in which a letter relates to a word relates to a sentence. Each piece of data can be envisioned as a brick with the metadata being a virtual wall. Metadata is the information that we hold that allows us to find the “who, what, when, where and why?” in regards to a specific information source. The Dublin Core is trumped as a simplified standard for creating metadata organization and retrieval records for network resources. It works on the basis of having a number of identifiers (title, author, source, etc.) that link to the particular piece of information and allow for its retrieval through a number of access points. What makes DC so simple to use is the fact that it does not require all fields to be filled and looks at a complete set of fields for a document as being expansive, rather than the norm. Its simplified form makes it accessible to users of varying technological and academic degree. Using common language and having translated systems to define terms lends a hand to its universality in both terms of an individual’s grammar background as well as their native tongue. It is expected that, due to the system’s simplicity in terms of accessibility and use, that it can be ever expansive as metadata sets are contributed to the collection from numerous sources. While all of this may of great possible benefit for the academic world and may allow for a new extensibility in Interoperability frame-working, for the system to meet its optimal and peak performance, it would be required that as much data for all field’s be filled in. For a search to be as effective in both locating desired materials and weeding out undesirable sources, it is a matter of mathematical chance: the more identifiers that are capable of being deployed, the greater the chance of honing in on the information. One thing that was of interest was the fact that certain identifiers were less commonly used by IR’s than others. While this may point to the fact that some IR’s find this information to be futile for metadata needs, it does keep the system from operating with optimal function ability. One of the prized aspects concerning DC and the OAI has to do with how the system is designed to help both nonspecialized and specialized searchers come across the information they desire. One point of contention I have to make is that if such things as source are left open, it removes an aspect of the system that is integral to its desirability. For example, if a casual user has read something in a particular periodical and would like to find what other essays or contributions may have also been published in that series, a blank source identifier would cause one’s search to turn up less than accurate results (this is assuming that the essay name would be filed under title and the periodical under source). The DC’s method of organizing and accessing metadata has both great power and ease of use embedded in its structure. The only issue with the system seems to be the human component factor. As these blank identifiers are the work of people at IR’s, it seems that just how much we are willing to put into the system defines how much we will be able to get out of it. In addition, the note that a number of XML’s were malformed when analyzed illustrates that materials submitted to the system must be “quality controlled,” as they would be of little use otherwise. In the end, the DC and OAI illustrate a step in effectively creating a system for metadata organization and retrieval that has both usability and great power in terms of interoperability. The system caters to a broad range of users and tries its best to appease their particular abilities when it comes to information seeking skills. In effect, it seems as if this project is a proper thrust in the direction of providing access to and maintaining organizational control over a vast and growing number of resources.