CollectionLevel Description potential and reality Collection Description Focus

Collection-Level Description: potential and reality Collection Description Focus Briefing Day 2 British Library, St Pancras, London 14 May 2002 Pete Johnston UKOLN, University of Bath, BA 2 7 AY Email cd-focus@ukoln. ac. uk URL http: //www. ukoln. ac. uk/ UKOLN is supported by: Collection Description Focus Briefing Day 2, 14 May 2002

Realising the potential of collection-level description • Collection Description Focus • CLDs as metadata – resource management – resource discovery • Potential to reality 2 Collection Description Focus Briefing Day 2, 14 May 2002

Collection Description Focus • Funded by – RSLP – JISC/DNER – British Library • UKOLN experience of RSLP Collection Description • Benefit from collaboration with – – 3 Interoperability Focus JISC Information Environment architecture team CIMI (museums) Dublin Core Collection Description WG Collection Description Focus Briefing Day 2, 14 May 2002

Collection Description Focus • Improve consistency, compatibility of approaches • Point of contact, advice – support for CLD in programmes – recommendations, guidelines • Gather information on existing practice – implementer visits – survey questionnaire • Consensus-building • Disseminate good practice – workshops, briefing days – publications 4 Collection Description Focus Briefing Day 2, 14 May 2002

Collection Description Focus • Ongoing – …. • Future – practical support for CLD in programmes – JISC Information Environment – NOF-digitise – Resource Regional Cross-Domain research projects – integrating existing work – international initiatives – domain-specific: CIMI, EAD implementers – cross-domain: DCMI, OAI 5 Collection Description Focus Briefing Day 2, 14 May 2002

CLDs as metadata records • Metadata – “Machine understandable information about web resources or other things” (Berners-Lee, 1997) – Structured data about resources that can be used to help support a wide range of operations • Collection as type of resource; CLD as metadata record • Support – resource management – resource discovery • Used by – human agents, software agents 6 Collection Description Focus Briefing Day 2, 14 May 2002

CLDs for resource management • Use CLDs to establish control of resources – multi-level description • CLDs support collaborative collection management – how to reconcile growing number/cost of publications with shrinking resources – partners co-operate on approach to collection development – share information – avoid unnecessary duplication – co-ordinate expensive purchases – CLDs to improve decision making – identify & record strengths, weaknesses 7 Collection Description Focus Briefing Day 2, 14 May 2002

CLDs for resource discovery • Resource users wish to – search across, interpret, and compare resource descriptions from different provider communities • CLDs support “survey of information landscape” – “to identify areas rather than specific features - to identify rainforest rather than to retrieve an analysis of the canopy fauna of the Amazon basin” (Heaney, 2000) • CLD as overview of aggregate of items • Not a substitute for item-level description – but CLD may be useful in contexts where item-level description inappropriate/unavailable 8 Collection Description Focus Briefing Day 2, 14 May 2002

CLDs for resource discovery • Cross-domain – – – Different ideas of “collections” Different ways of talking about “collections” Different criteria for defining “collections” Different ways of describing “collections” But useful/possible to agree on broadly common view…? – Within context of a service…? • Permit user to compare broadly similar highlevel objects – even where items heterogeneous • RSLP CD Schema as a “Dublin Core” for collections? 9 Collection Description Focus Briefing Day 2, 14 May 2002

CLDs for resource discovery • Collection-level description might – Disclose information about collections – Provide overview of otherwise uncatalogued items – Enable user to select collections to search on basis of summary description – Enable software agents to select collections to search on behalf of user – Support controlled searching of multiple collections 10 Collection Description Focus Briefing Day 2, 14 May 2002

Potential to reality • Archives Hub, Access to Archives – collaboration on domain-specific CLD services • RSLP, BL CPP – project-based CLD services – subject-specific; regional-based – RSLP scoping study on aggregation/search • Cornucopia – museums, extending to cross-domain? • CAIRNS – CLDs to build “landscapes” for item-level search • JISC Information Environment • NOF-digitise portal 11 Collection Description Focus Briefing Day 2, 14 May 2002

Potential to reality • Potential being realised? • Within the context of specific services? • But scope of services is broadening to meet user expectations… • … facing and addressing challenges of cross-domain working 12 Collection Description Focus Briefing Day 2, 14 May 2002

Acknowledgements UKOLN is funded by Resource: the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the UK higher and further education funding councils, as well as by project funding from the JISC and the European Union. UKOLN also receives support from the University of Bath where it is based. http: //www. ukoln. ac. uk/ 13 Collection Description Focus Briefing Day 2, 14 May 2002