Results and implications of the EuropeanaLocal metadata and content survey

Gordon McKenna Collections Trust, UK

Why Standards?

The British Standards Institution (BSI), the world’s oldest standards setting organisation (1901), says:

“Put at its simplest, a standard is an agreed, repeatable way of doing something. It is a published document that contains a technical specification or other precise criteria designed to be used consistently as a rule, guideline, or definition. Standards help to make life simpler and to increase the reliability and the effectiveness of many goods and services we use. Standards are created by bringing together the experience and expertise of all interested parties such as the producers, sellers, buyers, users and regulators of a particular material, product, process or service."

Plus in the context of Europeana: delivering interoperability

The Horrible Truth?

EuropeanaLocal Survey Sections

• Content provider information

• Collection description

• Digital object metadata

• Information scheme(s) (metadata)

• Terminologies: • Geographic names and co-ordinate standards • Date format and time periods• Subjects• Person and organisation

• Contributing to Europeana

Providers

Organisation type Number of organisations (%)

Library 76 (48.4)

Archive 19 (12.1)

Museum 33 (21.0)

Sound archive 0 (0)

Aggregator 16 (10.2)

Other 13 (8.3)

Content Numbers

Collection type Amount of content (%)

Library 653,290 (12.8)

Archive 2,098,406 (41.1)

Museum 708186 (13.9)

Sound archive 0 (0)

Aggregation 1,216,058 (23.8)

Other 431,568 (8.4)

Content Themes

ThemeNumber of collections

Local history 161

Fine art 30

Education 21

Local government 20

Religion 19

Archaeology 17

Literature 14

Maps 13

People 13

Science 13

Music 10

Content Time Periods (%)

Centuries All Libraries Archives Museums Other Aggregators

20th & 21st 83.2 84.5 70.0 94.6 94.1 95.2

19th 72.3 76.4 61.8 73.0 64.7 100.0

18th 55.5 57.3 49.4 48.6 52.9 85.7

17th 43.1 49.1 38.2 45.9 41.2 80.9

16th 36.5 33.6 27.0 43.2 41.2 76.2

15th 28.5 25.5 16.9 37.8 35.3 71.4

14th 24.5 18.2 15.7 35.1 29.4 71.4

13th 21.5 12.7 14.6 32.4 29.4 71.4

12th 19.7 9.1 13.5 32.4 29.4 71.4

11th 21.2 9.1 9.0 59.5 29.4 61.9

[Earlier] 13.5 2.7 7.9 24.3 29.4 61.9

Content Languages (examples)

Country Major languages: Max-Min % Other languages: Max-Min %

Czech Republic Czech: 100-8Latin: 75

English: 1French: 2German: 10Hebrew: 1Italian: 1Spanish: 1Swedish: 1

France French: 100-80Latin: 100-10

Catalan: 10English: 10-4Spanish: 10Turkish: 11

Netherlands Dutch: 100-90 French: 10English: 10German: 10

Norway Norwegian: 100-80 English 25-5‘Other’: 20-10

Slovak Republic Slovak: 80 German: 10Hungarian: 10

United Kingdom English: 100-98 Welsh: 2

Content Conclusions

• Providers – c50% local libraries

• Content source – c60% from archives and aggregators

• Themes – Local history & Fine art (typical), Education

• Time periods: • Most content 18th century to present• Significant content (especially museums) BCE

• Language – Reflect the historical environment of creation• Latin – religious and legal• English, French and German – lingua franca• E.g. Swedish in Finland – significant communities

Technical Standards

Focusing on:

• Amount of content

• File types in use

Text Content

Text type Number of collections : %

[All types] 127 : 43.8%

PDF 96 : 76.8%

HTML 43 : 34.4%

XML 30 : 24.0%

Word 23 : 18.4%

DjVu 20 : 16.0%

Plain text 16 : 12.8%

RTF 4: 3.2%

Image Content

Image type

Number of collections: %

[All types] 213: 73.4%

JPEG 182: 85.0%

TIFF 107 : 50.0%

GIF 12 : 5.6%

BMP 8 : 3.7%

PNG 8 : 3.7%

DjVu 27 : 12.6%

Audio Content

Audio type Number of collections: %

[All types] 26 : 9.0%

MP3 9 : 10.7%

WAV 6 : 7.1%

WMA 2 : 2.4%

AIFF 1 : 1.2%

MPG 1 : 1.2%

AudioCD 1 : 1.2%

Video Content

Video type Number of collections: %

[All types] 12 : 14.3%

MPG 7 : 8.3%

AVI 6 : 7.1%

FLV (Flash Video Format) 6 : 7.1%

MOV (Quicktime) 4 : 4.8%

MP4 3: 3.6%

WMV (Windows Media Video) 3: 3.6%

Technical Standards Conclusions

• Organisations are using the expected technical standards

• Recommend good set of guidelines, e.g.

Technical Guidelines for Digital Cultural Content Creation Programmes

http://www.minervaeurope.org/interoperability/technicalguidelines.htm

• Advantages: • Multilingual • Written for a general cultural sector audience• Updated

Terminology Standards

Focusing on:

• Use

• Creation – Published or In-house

Terminology Use

Standard area Number of organisations using standard

Geographic names 81 : 49.4%

Geographic co-ordinates 14 : 8.4%

Date formats 113 : 67.1%

Time periods 49 : 28.7%

Subjects 107 : 63.7%

Person and organisation authorities 77 : 13.1%

Terminology Creation

Standard area Provider developed

Published standards

Geographic names 25 : 30.9% 62 : 74.1%

Time periods 17 : 34.7% 33 : 67.3%

Subjects 33 : 30.8% 80 : 74.8%

Person and organisation authorities

20 : 26.0% 63 : 80.5%

Terminology Standards Conclusions

Factors affecting choice:

• Subject area – Is there a suitable source covering the area being recorded available?

• Language – Is there a source in the organisation’s main working language available?

• National standard – Is there a mandated standard source available?

• International standard – Is there an internationally recognised standard (usually de facto) available?

• Getty terminologies• Library of Congress

Metadata Standards

Focusing on:

• Use

• Organisation type

• Adaption (changing the standard)

Metadata – Describing What?

Metadata Standards

Metadata Standard Adaption

Metadata Standards Conclusions

• Libraries, archives and museums tend to use their own standards.

• Dublin Core is a popular metadata scheme.

• In-house developed metadata scheme & No standard significant.

• Standard adaption significant (especially Dublin Core)