Metadata for Heterogeneous Digital Assets

Fellow: Yong-Mi Kim

Faculty Mentors:

Judy Ahronheim and Lynn Johnson

Presentation Overview

Background DAMS Assets Metadata DAMS metadata issues Dentistry Education

Background

Digital Asset Management System (DAMS) at U-M Partnership

• CARAT/Rackham IT Fellow Media Union Living Lab

Vision (Living Lab) Build an environment where assets are easily

searched, shared, edited and repurposed in the academic model

Who are the partners …

School of Education School of Dentistry School of Literature, Science and Art

(Language Resource Center) School of Nursing School of Pharmacy School of Social Work Information Technology Central Services University Libraries

Digital Asset Management System

Tool for organizing digital media assets for storage and retrieval

Components Repository Database User interface Workflow

Not yet commonly used in higher education

Assets

Instructional videotapes Instructional software Slide collections (art, medicine, …) Videotapes of invited speakers Videotapes of student performances Fieldwork audio and video Web-based instructional materials

Assets in the university

Academic units and assets Create large amounts of perishable

intellectual property Preservation and access usually handled by

outside agents (academic publishers, libraries)

Small subset handled by outside agents Other assets preserved in ad-hoc manner

-> Assets not available for reuse

Metadata

“data about data” “A cloud of collateral information around a

data object” “hooks” by which information objects can

be extracted from or found within a repository

Example: Mirlyn

DAMS metadata issues

Heterogeneous collections with domain-specific description needs, vocabularies

Metadata entry will be handled by non-specialists

Granularity of description v. effort Consistency v. flexibility

Controlled vocabulary v. free text Enable search

Across subject areas Over time

Provenance

Application profile

Proposed by Heery & Patel (2000), UKOLN Combine elements from different metadata

schemas Define private (local) elements Optimized for a particular local application

Reflects the fact that particular project needs cannot be fully met by a standard “as is”

Process

Dekkers (2001):

1. Define metadata requirements

2. Select most appropriate existing standard metadata element set

3. Where possible, use standard elements for locally required elements, possibly narrowing semantics and adding local rule and vocabularies

4. Define remaining elements in private namespace

DAMS Pilot

1. Dublin Core selected as basis

2. Assess state of legacy metadata

3. Construct mappings

4. Select appropriate existing standard metadata set for domain-specific elements not covered by Dublin Core

5. Define remaining elements in private namespace

Dublin Core

Title Author Subject Description Publisher Contributor Date Resource Type

Format Resource identifier Source Language Relations Coverage Rights

Legacy metadata

Metadata needs of four partnership units surveyed: LS&A - Language Resource Center Education - Mathematics Teaching and

Learning to Teach project Pharmacy Dentistry

Legacy metadata status

LS&A - legacy metadata available online; can be exported with some modification

Education - legacy metadata exists but is scattered; structure does not allow easy search and retrieval

Pharmacy - metadata needs to be extracted or generated from objects

Dentistry - some legacy metadata available

Metadata in DAMS

Descriptive metadata Dublin Core

• General, simple metadata standard intended for use by non-specialists

IMS• Metadata standard focusing on educational uses

Metadata automatically collected by Ancept system File size, file name, etc.

UM_Core

Minimal level of description for DAMS assets Elements from Dublin Core Local elements

Search across collections done through UM_Core elements

UM_Core elements

DC_Title DC_Creator DC_Subject UM_SecondarySubject DC_Description DC_Publisher DC_Contributor DC_Date DC_Type DC_Format

DC_Identifier DC_Source DC_Language DC_Relation DC_Coverage DC_Rights UM_Publisher UM_AlternatePublisher

Dentistry

Assets for pilot Videos of dental procedures Oral pathology slides

High-level categories specific for dentistry defined

Metadata schema Preliminary metadata schema for video Additional work needed for oral pathology slides

Issues Controlled vocabularies (e.g., SNODENT) Incorporating other schema elements (e.g., DICOM)

Education

MTLT Videos Associated transcripts Presentations and papers based on above

Issues Explore using IMS Identify controlled vocabularies within

education Educate asset producers (faculty)

IMS

General Lifecycle Metametadata Technical Educational Rights Classification

interactivitytype learningresourcetype interactivitylevel semanticdensity intendedenduserrole context typicalagerange difficulty typicallearningtime description language

Questions?