Metadata Development for Digital Libraries and Museums
– Taiwan’s Experience
Hsueh-hua Chen
Department of Library and Information Science National Taiwan University
Taipei, 10660, Taiwan, ROC sherry@ccms.ntu.edu.tw
Chao-chen Chen
Department of Adult and Continuing Education National Taiwan Normal University
Taipei, 10642, Taiwan, ROC cc4073@tpts1.seed.net.tw
Abstract
In the digital library/museum environment, metadata plays a crucial role, and the development of metadata is not an easy task. Its formulation has to begin with analysing the attributes of collections, and understanding the user information needs and information seeking behaviours. The issue of interoperability needs to be considered in terms of both semantic as well as syntax. This paper introduces the background information of Taiwan’s Digital Museum Project, and discusses issues related to the development of metadata for use in this project.
1. Introduction
Recently, with the rapid development of Internet, researches on digital libraries and digital museums have received worldwide attention; and all developed countries are supporting these researches with great enthusiasm. In Taiwan, we have rich cultural heritage with a wide range of treasures, many organizations and research institutions possess abundant collections of rare books, historical remains, artefacts and documents on both local Taiwanese and traditional Chinese culture. In the past, they were not open to the public due to preservation considerations. Now, through the powerful Internet, we will be able to present these valuable resources on the WWW. Besides increasing public exposures, it will preserve the physical resource that might be otherwise deteriorating.
In Taiwan, major institutions those have digitised their rare collections include National Taiwan University, Academic Sinica, National Central Library, National Palace Museum, National Museum of History, National Museum
of Natural Science, and so on.[1] To digitise these valuable resources and present them on the web is their primary task. However, it is much more important to organize these resources based on their characteristics. Therefore, users may retrieve and use them effectively. It is obvious that metadata is vital to digital library/museum systems.
From the perspective of users, a digital library/museum should contain basic functions of retrieval, browse, and links to other related web resources. Usually, a digital library/museum with a large volume of data will apply database management system to manage its metadata, digital objects, and the links, etc. This paper will discuss issues related to the development of metadata in Taiwan, and introduce the Metadata Interchange for Chinese Information (MICI), which is developed under the Digital Museum Project funded by the National Science Council, Taiwan.
2. The Development of Digital
Museum Project in Taiwan
National Science Council (NSC) of Taiwan launched “Greeting a New Millennium— A Cross-Century Technology Development Program with Concern for the Humanities” in 1998 with an intention to strengthen researches on humanity/social science and science education. Digital Museum Project (DMP) was part of this project, and its main goals are to integrate and establish a digital museum, which emphasize culture as well as science content with educational value for the general public and students in Taiwan.[2] By establishing and promoting educational content on the web through the powerful Internet, the public may retrieve or browse information fre ely; consequently, users may experience its
enrichment and enjoy the lifelong learning.[3] Furthermore, by promoting digital collections, NSC hopes to stimulate the technology development of multimedia and the growth of content industry.
During the first phase (Sep. 1998-Aug. 1999) of Digital Museum Project, NSC invited experts and scholars with experience on digital collections to form a collaborative mechanism to promote digital museum researches. Under Digital Museum Project, there are two types of projects: topic-based projects and technical support projects.[4] In addition, DMP Extension is responsible for training and promotion by serving as a bridge for library/museum communities, teachers, industries, and DMP researchers and staff.
DMP’s topic-based projects in the first phase include local spotlight and traditional culture. Specifically, there are two comprehensive projects on local Taiwanese culture: “Discovery of Tamsuei River” and “Taiwanese Aborigines – The Ping-pu Tribe”. On natural science and environmental ecology, there are “Butterfly Ecology” and “Native Plants and Fishes of Taiwan” projects. On traditional Chinese culture, there are three projects: “Traditional Thoughts and Literatures (The Four Books, Lou-Chuang, Poems of the Tang Dynasty)”, “An Immortal Palace — Han Dynasty Culture and Burials”, and “Firearms and Ming-Ching Dynasty Warfare”.[5]
Technical support projects in the first phase consist of five different areas, including: geographic information system, word net, metadata, copyright, and evaluation. Among these five areas, we led a metadata research team, ROSS (Resources Organization and Searching Specification), to study metadata related issues and to design metadata suitable for Chinese materials.
The principal investigators of the first year’s project were professors and researchers mainly from Academic Sinica, National Taiwan University and National Ching-Hua University.
The second phase of the Digital Museum Project was carried out from January 2000 – December 2000, which was open to all interested participants. Among nearly 90 topic -based proposals, 12 were selected and funded by NSC and four of them were carried on from the first phase.[6] These topic-based projects are listed as follows:
1. Treasurers of the National Palace Museum
2. The World of Xuanzang and the Silk Route
3. Discovery of Tamsui River (II)
4. Native Artist Digital Museum — Yu -Yu Yang Art Research Center
5. Historical Photos of Taiwan 6. Architectural History of Taiwan 7. Mystery of Human Body
8. Taiwanese Aborigines — The Ping-pu Tribe (II)
9. Ancient Texts and Popular Songs of Tang and Sung Dynasties (II)
10. Native Freshwater Fishes of Taiwan (II) 11. Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture 12. Biology-Cultural Diversification of
Orchid Island
During the second phase, two technical support projects on metadata and digital watermark were carried out. ROSS team continued its metadata research and developed an XML/metadata management system — Metalogy.
Since the second phase projects were opened to interested participants, the principal investigators were from many other universities and organizations other than three institutions mentioned in the first phase.
Currently, The Digital Museum Project is in its third phase, and 15 topic-based projects were being selected which cover a wide variety of different topics, including: language literature, religious art, folk culture, historical relics, mathematics, biology, architecture, and geography, etc.
3. Resources Organization and
Searching Specification
Before NSC launched the Digital Museum Project, we initialised a metadata research team, Resources Organization and Searching Specification (ROSS), under the National Taiwan University Digital Library/Museum (NTUDL/M) Project in March 1997. Its research scope contains the following: to understand the h istory and features of collections, to study various metadata formats both domestically and internationally, to understand relations among metadata, database and the system framework, and to understand information needs and information seeking behaviour of potential users. ROSS held that, the metadata should be able to describe attributes of the collections, to provide users with the mandatory access points, to enhance interoperability among different digital libraries and museums to exchange information, and to consider the quality of cataloguing. Most digital collections of NTUDL/M were historical documents, after studying the characteristics of historical documents, ROSS made in-depth studies of the metadata of similar types of collections, including CIMI (Computer
Interchange of Museum Information), Dublin Core, EAD (Encoding Archival Description), TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) Headers, etc. Nevertheless, due to cultural and characteristics differences, these metadata formats are not sufficient to des cribe Chinese special collections. Hence, it is necessary to focus on the research on Chinese metadata, which is the main goal of ROSS.[7]
When the NSC lunched the Digital Museum Project in 1998, ROSS team were invited to participate one of its technical support project. In the first phase, ROSS team was responsible for the metadata development for topic-based projects, mainly for “Discovery of Tamsui River” and “Butterfly Ecology”. In the second phase, the main task of ROSS team is to develop a metadata management system, Metalogy, which is capable of handling various types of metadata for use by topic -based projects. Currently, Metalogy is used by several organizations, including: National Palace Museum, National Taiwan University, National Chiao-Tung University, and some other libraries, etc. Among them, ROSS team spent most of the time to assist National Palace Museum to develop metadata for their contents.
4. Procedures for Designing Metadata
According to our experiences, the development of metadata is not an easy task; it includes at least seven steps.
4.1 Analysing the attributes of collections: The first step in formulation of metadata is to understand and extract the common features and characteristics of collections. We spent lots of time to discuss with content experts in order to better understand the attributes of collections. 4.2 Needs assessment of metadata users:
Interview the content experts and potential users to understand their information needs and information seeking behaviours.
4.3 Interoperability Consideration:
During the development of metadata, special attention was paid on the compatibility with international standards; thus, we joined The CIMI Consortium (Consortium for the Interchange of Museum Information) since 1998 as its member and were involved in its Dublin Core Testbed Project. We attended the 7th and 8th meetings of Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) to gain the up-to-date development of Dublin Core.
We also explored what is the best format to be used to exp ress complex digital library/museum content. And we decided to use extensible Markup Language (XML) as the preferred format of syntax.
4.4 Semantic design of metadata:
We designed Metadata Interchange for Chinese Information (MICI), and adopted qualified Dublin Core as its basic structure for metadata semantics, and this set of metadata is named as MICI-DC.
4.5 Developing metadata management system:
We developed Metalogy metadata management tool for different types of metadata, including MICI-DC. This system may be used to develop databases for any digital library/museum in different subjects. Functions of Metalogy include database set-up by the DTD, metadata edit, authority file edit, retrieval (including both Window and Web interfaces), and import/export of XML files, etc.
4.6 Developing tagging guide and user manual:
In order to make it easier for users to catalogue their collections using MICI-DC, a tagging-guide was complied with explanations and examples on the 15 elements and their qualifiers.
4.7 Providing training courses:
In order to promote Taiwan’s museum community to better understand metadata, we organized a “ Workshop on Dublin Core for Museum” which was held in March 1999, and Executive Director of CIMI and other two metadata experts from UK Office for Library and Information Networking (UKOLN) and American Museum Online (AMOL) were invited as speakers. When MICI -DC and Metalogy system was done, ROSS team members continue to provide training courses through Digital Museum Project Extension Office.
5. Metadata Interchange for Chinese
Information
MICI-DC has been used to catalogue various types of collections: historical documents, old maps, photos/pictures,
calligraphies, objects, and Buddhism scriptures/paintings. Users may choose DC’s 15-element and qualifiers and adjust the orders of these elements according to their needs. In addition to DC’s official qualifiers, in order to describe the attributes of our rich cultural heritage and be more precise on the semantics of the collection descriptions, local qualifiers were added to appropriate elements based on the
attributes of collections, individual institutions might also define their own qualifiers based on the attributes of its collections. This will be compatible with international standards, and meanwhile, allow users with great flexibilities in meeting the local needs.
Metadata Interchange for Chinese Information (MICI-DC)*
Last Modified 2000.07.03Element Qualifier
Aggregation Level Item/ Collection Original / Surrogate Original/ Surrogate Cultural / Natural Cultural / Natural
interactive resource dataset event image sound service software collection DC Type text Type Local Level Medium Quantity Name MeasurementsUnit Format
Extent (size, duration)
Dimension Position Main Subtitle Title Alternative Method Source Acquisition Price Illustration Color Material Attachments Form Whole Object Part Of Object Physical Description Scale Abstract / Synopsis Place Locality Name Date Gathered Field Number Method of Collection Type Of Site Coordinates Coordinates of Object Phonomena Accompanying Object Cultural Layer Geological Period Age
Collection Or Site Information
Environmental Details
Artist Inscription Seal Locality Artist Inscription From Artist Artist Seal Colophon Locality Colophon Writer Colophon Seal Description Seal Type About Colophon
Element Qualifier
Label Locality Label Writer Label Seal About Label
Label Full Text Loose Leaf Writer Loose Leaf Seal About Loose Leaf
Loose Leaf Full Text Collector Seal Locality From Collector
Collector Seal Inscription Series Number
Position Category Style
InscriptionContent Full Text Inscription Content InscriptionContent Image Series Number Position Decoration Category Transcription Volume Cover
Protective Covering Case Mount
Book Case Edition Name Binding
Border/ Column Center Boundary/ Row Block Heart
Style Form
Frame Mark Lines Per Page
Release Font Exhibition Name Exhibition Size Exhibition Description Recommendation Exhibition Object Description Web Description Condition Grade Notes Primary Subject Secondary Subject Other Subject Situation Function Series Number Position Technique Category Style And Movement Personal Name Subject Descriptor Corporate Body Subject Keywords Personal Name Dynasty Birth Place Corporate Body Creator Role
Element Qualifier Personal Name Dynasty Birth Place Corporate Body Contributor Role Publisher Cataloging Date Created Issued Acquired Date Modified CallNumber AccessionNumber Identifier URI Source Reference Work Collection Catalogue Is Reference Of Research Material Part Title Part Creator Part Contributor Has Part Pagination Is Part Of Relation Citation Cataloging Language Language Item Language Place Of Use Scope Of Coverage Spatial Place Of Event Period Of Use Temporal Date Of Event Coverage Owner Name Rights Owner Country
* MICI-DC was developed before “Dublin Core Qualifiers” was announced
6. Lessons Learned in the
Development of Metadata
During the last four years, ROSS team has been experiencing the increasing scale of collaboration, from inter-campus project in National Taiwan University to gradually into a national level project – Digital Museum Project.
Like other pioneer projects, ROSS team suffered through the initial period of trying to find a common language and a right working model among people from different disciplines. Yet, several factors contributed significantly to the success of the metadata development. First, it can be attributed by the bondage by a strong sense of mission and urgency to preserve the indigenous Taiwanese cultural heritage.
Second, the early participation in the CIMI metadata testbed project gave us a jump -start on the metadata development. Third, during the process of metadata development, ROSS team held frequent dis cussions with content experts to better understand their information needs and seeking behaviors. In addition, discussion meetings were held periodically for all staff to report their work progress and to understand each other’s progress. Furthermore, besides official meetings, social activities also played an important role to “break the ice”; it helped people to get acquainted and enhanced the willingness of cooperation.
References
[1] Chang, San-Cheng (1999). Digitalize national collections (In Chinese). In Science and Technology Advisory Group of the Executive Yuan of the Republic of China (Ed.), The 9th Executive Yuan of the Republic of China (SRB) meeting (In Chinese) (153-182). Taipei: Editor. [2] Hwang, Jenn-Tai (1999). Greeting a New
Millennium -- A Cross-Century
Technology Development Program with Concern for the Humanities (In Chinese), National science council monthly 27(7), 715-718.
[3] Wang, Mei-Yu (2000). Achievement of National Science Council Digital Museum Project (In Chinese), National science council monthly 28(4), 249-253. [4] NSC, National Science Council (1999a).
National Science Council Digital Museum Project, call for proposal, 2000 (In Chinese) [Announcement]. Taipei. Retrieved Dec. 25, 1999 from the World Wide Web: http://www.nsc.gov.tw/announce/89digi_ museum.html
[5] NSC, National Science Council (1999b). The general situation of National Science
Council Digital Museum Project (In Chinese). Retrieved Dec. 25, 1999 from the World Wide Web:
http://www.nsc.gov.tw/y2k/dml/880209D ATA2.html
[6] DMPE, Digital Museum Project Extension, National Science Council (1999). National Science Council Digital Museum Project summary: Digital Museum Project Extension, National Science Council (In Chinese). Retrieved July. 11, 2000 from the World Wide Web:
http://mars.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~dlm/plan/1st/i ntro12.htm
[7] Chen, Hsueh-hua, Chen, Chao-chen, & Chen, Kuang-hua (1999). Metadata Interchange for Chinese Information. In Ching-chih Chen (Ed.), IT and Global Digital Library Development (pp.65-74). West Newton: MicroUse Information. [8] DMPO, Digital Museum Project Office,
National Science Council (2000). An Introduction of National Science Council Digital Museum Project (In Chinese). Retrieved July. 11, 2000 from the World Wide Web:
