Metadata How-To

This resource provides an overview of the procedures used for creating metadata in the DBCAH Digital Collections. This style guide covers basic information about this collection's metadata schema, controlled vocabularies, and guidelines for descriptive metadata input.

 

Index

I. Identifier Information

Unique standard number or code that distinctively identifies a resource. It includes manifestation, expression and work level identifiers.

 

Element

Ex. e_cletex_00001

 

Guidelines and best practices for completing the form

  • The “DBCAH identifier” is the default identifier.
  • Identifier type and value are required elements

 

 

II. Title

A word, phrase, character, or group of characters, normally appearing in a resource, that names it or the work contained in it. The title field acts like a wrapper element that contains all the subelements related to the title information.

 

Elements

Title type
Title
Supplied
Part number
Part name

 

Guidelines and best practices for completing the form

  • “Main” is the default title type. Other  title types are added as needed:
    • Abbreviated → Title as abbreviated for indexing or identification
    • Alternative → Varying form of the title if it contributes to the further identification of the item
    • Translated → Translation or transcription of the main title
  • “Yes” is used if the document doesn’t have a proper title and cataloger supplyed it (e.g. letters, photographs, memos, etc)
  • Title type, title and supplied are required elements
  • Subtitle, part number and part name elements are more likely to be used for published resources, and only when these are clearly specify on the document

Letters:

  • Include the names of the sender, recipient, and date (if known)
    • Letter from William P. Clements to Ronald Reagan, November 27, 1981

Memos:

  • Includes the names of the sender, recipient, subject and date (if known)
    • Memo from Jim Cicconi to Doug Brown regarding Office of Traffic Study, August 2, 1979

Press Releases:

  • Includes the releasing agency, subject and date (if known)
    • News Release from the Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) regarding Air Force to terminate project “Blue Book”, December 17, 1969

Photographs:

  • Includes content of the photograph and date (if known)
    • Photograph of William P. Clements, Jr. and Rita Crocker-Clements, 1983

 

 

III. Creator/Contributor(s)

The name of a person, organization, or family associated with the resource as a creator or contributor. The field name acts like a wrapper element that contains all sub-elements related to name information. The role subelement is used to indicate the particular relationship between the name and the resource. To indicate authorship, the value of role should be "creator". The type of name (personal, corporate, family) has to be indicated.

 

Elements & qualifiers

Name

Name types are categories of names defined by MODS V3 User Guidelines
Name of the person, organization, group, or corporation responsible for the creation or the creation of the physical document or who made contributions either to the intellectual content of the original physical document or who was responsible for altering the document into its present form
Ex. Briscoe, Mary Jane
Ex. Clements, William P.

Role

Role term designates the relationship (role) of the entity recorded in name in relation to the resource
Ex. “Interviewer”, Ex. “Photographer”

 

Authorities & controlled vocabularies

Name
Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) https://viaf.org/
DBCAH Local Names

Roles
Library of Congress MARC Relator Terms http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators.html
PBCore Creator Roles metadataregistry.org/concept/list/page/1/vocabulary_id/128.html
PBCore Contributor Roles metadataregistry.org/concept/list/page/1/vocabulary_id/127.html

 

Guidelines and best practices for completing the form

Creator

  • The entity(s) primarily responsible for making the resource. This can be a person, a family or a corporate
  • Name type: “person”, “family” or “corporate”. Consult the controlled vocabularies for names (viaf and local) to choose the proper term before typing it on the autocomplete field. If the term doesn’t exist on the vocabulary, use the controlled vocabulary - log to suggest the addition.
  • Record of the authority for the name term (viaf or local). The authority is shown together with the name on the autocomplete field and on the controlled vocabulary
  • The role term specifies  in what capacity the name entity is responsible for the resource.. PBCore vocabulary is for audiovisual roles, and marcrelator is for any others.

Contributor

  • The entity(s) responsible for making contributions to the resource

 

 

IV. Coverage

Extent or scope of the content of the resource. Coverage tells what a thing is about rather than when and where it was made. It will typically include spatial location (a place name or geographic coordinates) and a temporal period (a period label, date, or date range). Although the coverage field appears to repeat information that could also be placed in other elements, such as subject/keyword and date, it is needed to provide the best interoperability with other metadata and resource-sharing systems.

 

Elements & qualifiers

Coverage type - allow us to be explicit about the meaning of the information we are documenting about the content of the item we are describing

Date
Date (Ex. 1960)
Start date  (Ex. 1979-01-16)
End date  (Ex. 1983-01-18)

Time period
Ex. Early SEDCO years, 1947-1960

Hierarchical Geographic
Ex. Austin
Ex. Japan

 

Authorities and controlled vocabularies

Time period
DBCAH Subjects

Countries, States, Counties, Cities
Geonames  http://sws.geonames.org/

Regions
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)  http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects.html

 

Guidelines and best practices for completing the form

Date

  • Use this element only to record dates that are being discussed on the content of the resource, independently of the creation date
  • Always follows the ISO 8601 standard for expression of dates:
    • YYYY-MM-DD
    • YYYY-MM
    • YYYY
  • When there is a range of dates discussed on the content of the resource, Start date and End date are used

Time Period

  • According to the content of the resource, the most appropriate expression regarding Clements’ life time period divisions

Hierarchical Geographic

  • Refers to region, country, state, county and/or city.
  • Elements recorded are places that are only discussed on the content of the resource, independently of the creation place

 

 

IV.1 Appointee Zip Code

Zip Code of Appointee from Appointee Letter

 

Element

Postal Zip Code
Ex. 78723

 

 

V. Encyclopedia Term(s) 

A term with an Encyclopedia entry on the Clements Texas Papers Project.

 

Elements & qualifiers

For the purpose of this project, we have adapted a note element to keep track of the resources that have been tagged with an encyclopedia term
Ex. SEDCO

 

Authorities & controlled vocabularies

DBCAH Encyclopedia

 

 

VI. Subject(s)

A term or phrase representing the primary topic(s) on which a work is focused. Subjects are controlled terms, which means their value has to be chosen from and authority list. Since the subject/keyword element describes both what the object is about and what it is, some subject-related information may be repeated in other elements.

For instance, a digital image that is a photograph could be given the subject “photographs”, and also listed as a genre in the Physical Description field. To describe a resource, such as an autobiography that is about its creator, the creator’s name should be placed in both the subject/keyword element and the creator element. Although geographic terms are normally handled by the coverage field, subject fields could also include geographic terms.

 

Elements & qualifiers

Subject types are used to differentiate subject content
Ex. Name
Ex. Genre

Name

Name types are categories of names defined by MODS V3 User Guidelines
Ex. Personal
Ex. Corporate
Ex. Family

Name of individuals, organizations, associations, agencies or institutions
Ex. Rove, Karl
Ex. SEDCO, Inc.

Role term - term(s) that designates the relationship (role) of the entity recorded in name in relation to the resource
Ex. “Interviewer”
Ex. “Photographer”

Genre - term or terms that designate a category characterizing a particular style, form, or content, such as artistic, musical, literary composition, etc…
Ex. Caricatures
Ex. Film Negatives
Ex. CD-R

Topic - Broad categories of information that are covered/discussed/represented in the resource
Ex. Petroleum Industry

 

Authorities & controlled vocabularies

Name
Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) https://viaf.org/
DBCAH Names

Genre
Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT)  getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/aat/index.html
PBCore Instantiation Physical metadataregistry.org/concept/list/vocabulary_id/145.html

Topic
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects.html
DBCAH Subjects

 

Guidelines and best practices for completing the form

Name

  • Persons, families or corporates that are being discussed on the content of the resource
  • Follows the same rules as the name element in creator/contributor fields.
  • The Role Term specifies in what capacity the name entity is being discussed in the resource. PBCore vocabulary used for audiovisual roles and marcrelator for any others.

Genre

  • This element records genres that are being discussed on the content of the resource
    • e.g.: A letter where a speech is being discussed will have as a subject-genre : Speeches (documents) from the AAT vocabulary

Topic

  • This element to records topics discussed on the content of the resource
  • In addition to the topics from the entity extraction, cataloguers assign local topics that refer to a DBCAH Collections Strengths:
    • Intellectual History
    • American South
    • Civil Rights & Social Justice
    • Congressional & Political
    • Energy & Natural Resources
    • Military History
    • Music
    • News Media History
    • Photography
    • Photojournalism
    • Quilt History
    • Texas History
    • Touring Entertainment
    • UT Archives
    • Western Americana
    • Winedale Historical Collections

 

 

VII. Description

A succinct summary of some aspect of the content of the resource. When creating a metadata record for a digital surrogate, record a summary of the content of the original resource. If only a portion of the resource was digitized, summarize only that portion. It might be useful to include background information that relates to the item but is not directly important enough to be put in the content description. The subelement notes should include background information that relates to the item but is not directly important enough to be put in the content description.

 

Elements & qualifiers

Description

Ex. Broadside advertising a funeral ceremony assassinated president Abraham Lincoln, held in Elgin, Illinois, on April 19, 1865. It details the route of the procession, the order of local official participants in the procession, and the order of service for the ceremony to be held in the Academy Hall.

 

Guidelines and best practices for completing the form

  • Descriptive but concise. Cataloger must use complete sentences with proper grammar and punctuation
  • Avoids any commentary on or interpretation of the item being described
  • It is recommended that the description start with a statement of the item type (e.g.: Photograph of …). Include dates, places, names, topics, and any other descriptive information relevant to the identification of the resource and to the user:
    • For photographs and artwork, be as descriptive as possible about what the image shows
    • For texts, give a brief overview of the item
    • For letters and memos, be sure to state who the letter is to and from, giving a brief overview of the content
    • For postcards, describe them as photographs (or artwork) if there is nothing written on the back; if the postcard has a message written on the back, treat it as a letter
    • For maps, state the region depicted as well as: important features noted on the map, shading or color that has significance, insets, relief or elevations, and other relevant details
  • Put in quotations and cite any statements taken directly from the object(s) to use in the description
  • When referring to a company, organization, school, military installation, etc., the abbreviated version of the name can be used, but the full name must appear at least once in the record
  • Description is a required element

 

 

VIII. Note(s)

Notes allow cataloguers to provide additional information not recorded in any of the other mods fields.

 

Elements & qualifiers

Note types refer to the known categories of notes that can be applied to the description of an item. Notes are repeatable and there is an option to add a note after every descriptive and administrative field set
Ex.  Admin
       Display

Notes - background information that relates to the item but is not directly important enough to be put in the content description
Ex. The chautauqua movement was a "popular U.S. movement in adult education that flourished during the late 19th and early 20th centuries....At first entirely religious in nature, the program was gradually broadened to include general education, recreation, and popular entertainment" - from Encyclopedia Britannica.

 

Guidelines and best practices for completing the form

  • “Admin” note type used for any information relevant to the QA of the metadata record or to record information regarding the cataloguing that would be of interest to the reviewer of the record. The Admin note has internal purposes only and it is not published with the metadata record
  • “Display” note type used to record additional descriptive information about the resource and that doesn’t fit in any of the other metadata fields

 

 

IX. Language(s)

A designation of the language in which the content of a resource is expressed. Because of the global nature of the Internet, use of this field is recommended.

 

Elements & qualifiers

Language(s) of the intellectual content of the resource
Ex. English
Ex. Spanish
Ex. French

 

Authorities & controlled vocabularies

ISO639-3 language codes http://www-01.sil.org/iso639-3/codes.asp

 

Guidelines and best practices for completing the form

  • Add as many languages as needed.
  • If no language is identified on the resource (e.g. photograph), it’s left blank.

 

 

X. Physical Description

Information relating with the physical description of the resource, including format, extent and genre. Internal or displaying notes can be added to this element to enrich the physical description, including any important information about the item that does not fit in other fields.  

For example, within a book you may have illustrations; in a photograph you may have engravings; in a map you may have an atlas, etc. You may also note the material from which the object is made. Likewise you may note the material used to create the object or, in the case of three-dimensional object, you may note the color, patterns, etc.

Notes displayable to the public may include references to additional information contained within the object itself, as well as suggestions to further research on the item or subject. Information about non-standard or inconsistent page numbers, missing pages, and other oddities.

 

Elements & qualifiers

Type of Resource - specifies the characteristics and general type of content of the resource
Ex. Text
Ex. Cartographic
Ex. Mixed material

Genre - designate a category characterizing a particular style, form, or content, such as artistic, musical, literary composition, etc…
Ex. Caricatures
Ex. Film Negatives
Ex. CD-R

Form
Form type is a designation of a particular physical presentation of a resource, including the physical form or medium of material for a resource
Ex. Caricatures
Ex. Film Negatives
Ex. CD-R

Form value
Ex. 24fps
Ex. 1998

Extent
Extent unit - Unit of measurement for the original resource
Ex. Pages
Ex. Items
Ex. Hours

Extent - A statement of the number and specific material of the units of the resource that express physical extent
Ex. 62
Ex. 5
Ex. 1.5

Digital origin - The method by which a resource achieved digital form. May indicate the source of a digital file, which is important to its creation, use, and management
Ex. Born digital
Ex. Reformatted digital

Reformatting quality - The method by which a resource achieved digital form. May indicate the source of a digital file, which is important to its creation, use, and management
Ex. Born digital
Ex. Reformatted digital

Reformatting quality - Indicates an overall assessment of the physical quality of an electronic resource in relation to its intended use
Ex. Access
Ex. Preservation
Ex. Replacement

 

Authorities & controlled vocabularies

Genre
Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT)  getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/aat/index.html
Library of Congress Thesaurus for Graphic Materials (LCTGM)  loc.gov/rr/print/tgm1/
PBCore Instantiation Physical - metadataregistry.org/concept/list/vocabulary_id/145.html

Resource type
MODS loc.gov/standards/mods/userguide/typeofresource.html

 

Guidelines and best practices for completing the form

  • The type of resource is a required field. If the resource includes different types (e.g.: letter with a photograph attached), “mixed materials” is used.
  • Form field is only used for audiovisual resources, indicating form type and value
  • “Pages” are used for text, “items” for still images and maps, and “hours” and “minutes” for sound recording and moving image
    • E.g.: clipped material that include text and still images will have two extent elements, one for each resource type
  • “Reformatted digital” used as the default value on the Digital origin drop down menu
  • “Access” used as the default value on the Reformatting quality drop down menu

 

 

XI. Related Item(s)

Information that identifies other resources related to the one being described. This field includes a designation of the specific type of relationship and uses the related item identifier value to establish the relationship.

 

Elements & qualifiers

Relation type - used to characterize the relationships between resources.
Ex. Preceding
Ex. Other version
Ex. Translation of

Related item - Identifier value for the related resource
Ex. e_cletex_00001
Ex. e_cletex_00001.mp3

 

Guidelines and best practices for completing the form

  • This element identifies two resources that are related in a relevant way. Examples may include:
    • Letters back and forth between two correspondents that follow a clear argument line (uses “preceding - succeeding” as relation type)
    • A document and its translation to a different language (uses “translation of” as relation type)
    • An audio/video document and its transcription (uses “transcription of” as relation type)

Attachments to a letter/memo/etc.. that have been included on the DMR as different items with each one a different identifier (use “constituent-host” as relation type)

 

 

XII. Origin Information

Information about the origin of the resource, including place of origin or publication, publisher/originator, and dates associated with the resource. It includes all dates associated with the resource and issuance information.

 

Elements & qualifiers

Date

Issued/created - Date types are used to specify the meaning of all non-Coverage dates.
Levels of certainty allow us to specify the degree of confidence we have in the date we are assigning to the item. Levels of Certainty can be specified for Coverage dates and non-Coverage dates.
Ex. approximate
Ex. inferred
Ex. questionable
Date
(ISO 8601) Basic format: YYYY-MM-DD,  Partial date: YYYY-MM
Ex. 1980-01-26
Ex. 1980-01w

Publisher Location

Publisher Location - Creation (publication) place of the resource. City only
Ex. Austin, Texas
Publisher - entity that published, printed, distributed, released, issued, or produced the resource. This autocomplete will pull from “names” controlled vocabulary. This is only relevant if the resource was published.
Ex. Austin American-Statesman

 

Authorities & controlled vocabularies

Publisher
Virtual International Authority File (VIAF)  https://viaf.org/
DBCAH Publishers

Publication Location
Geonames  http://sws.geonames.org/

Guidelines and best practices for completing the form

Date

  • Issued date field is used only for published resources. If date is not found in any of the main sources (imprint or copyright), date marked inferred, approximate or questionable date, indicating the level of certainty
  • Created date is  for unpublished resources (e.g.: letters, memos, photographs, etc). If date cannot be found in any of the main sources (imprint or copyright), date marked inferred, approximate or questionable date, indicating the level of certainty
  • The ISO 8601 standard for expression of dates is used:
    • YYYY-MM-DD
    • YYYY-MM
    • YYYY
  • If the most approximated date that can be provided is a decade, a date on the calendar from the first year of the decade is chosen (e.g.: 1950, 1960, 1970, etc)

Publisher location

  • Only for published resources. A city on the autocomplete field is chosen as the place of publication

Publisher

  • Only for published resources

 

 

XIII. Location Information

The location identifies the institution or repository holding the resource, the collection to where it belongs and its physical location within the repository.

 

Elements & qualifiers

Location - The institution or repository that holds the resource or where it is available
Ex. Texas A&M University

Sublocation - Department, division, or section of an institution holding a copy of the resource
Ex. Cushing Memorial Library and Archives

Source - Title of the collection the items are part of
Ex. William P. Clements, Jr. Personal Papers 

Box Number - Number of the box where the original item is physically located
Ex. 10
Ex. 2013-272/3

Folder Name - Number or title of the folder where the original item is physically located
Ex. 35

Series - Title of the archival series  the item belongs to
Ex. Appointment Files

Subseries - Title of the archival subseries  the item belongs to
Ex. Personal Papers

 

Authorities & controlled vocabularies

Location/Sublocation
DBCAH Repositories

Source  
DBCAH Sources

 

Guidelines and best practices for completing the form

Location Information

  • “Texas A&M University” is the Location
  • “Cushing Memorial Library and Archives” is  the Sublocation
  • The proper collection title is used for the Source autocomplete field
  • The box and folder numbers are used for the Box and Folder fields
  • The proper series title is used for the Series autocomplete field. All the series have the collection title as complementary information to help cataloguers identify the right one
  • Subseries title is only needed for “GH Assistant for Handicapped Affairs | 1st term(*)”. The reason this element is used is because the box and folder numbering start over on each subseries, and  subseries title is supplied as disambiguation information.
  • Location, Sublocation, Source, Box, Folder and Series are required fields

 

 

XIV. Rights Information

Rights information provides information about rights being held in and over the resource, and it also describes the conditions under which the work may be used, distributed, reproduced, etc., how these conditions may change over time, and whom to contact regarding the copyright of the work. It is necessary to establish who the rights holder of a resource is for situations where there is a question of what can or can't be done or whom to contact regarding the copyright of the work.

 

Elements & qualifiers

Use and Reproduction Statement
Ex. Please contact the repository for information concerning the use and reproduction of this resource

Rights Holder

Name type - categories of names defined by MODS V3 User Guidelines
Ex. Personal
Ex. Corporate
Ex. Family

Name of individuals, organizations, associations, agencies or institutions
Ex. Cushing Memorial Library & Archives

Role term - designates the relationship (role) of the entity recorded in name in relation to the resource
Ex. Copyright holder

 

Authorities & controlled vocabularies

Rights holder
Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) https://viaf.org/
DBCAH names

Roles
Library of Congress MARC Relator Terms http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators.html

 

Guidelines and best practices for completing the form

Use statement

  • "Contact Cushing Memorial Libraries, Texas A&M University for further information on the use and reproduction of this material." is used for any resource on the Personal Papers and the Campaign Papers
  • “These materials belong to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) who retain copyright.” is used  for any resource on the 1st and 2nd term State Papers
  • User and reproduction statement is a required element

Rights holder

  • The right holder field is  a name type (person, family, corporate), authority (viaf or local) and name term
  • "Cushing Memorial Libraries" is used for any resource on the Personal Papers and the Campaign Papers
  • “Texas State library and archives commission” is used for any resource on the 1st and 2nd term State Papers
  • Since both terms are viaf authorities, “viaf” is used as the name authority
  • The role term is used to indicate that the role of the entity is “copyright holder”. This is term from the marcrelator vocabulary, so use this as role authority
  • Right holder (name type, name and role)  is a required element

 

 

XV. Curation

Information regarding the digital project related with the resource.

 

Elements & qualifiers

Project name - Provides the project name(s) the item is associated with
Ex. Clements Texas Papers
Ex. Clements National Security Papers

Gallery name - Provides the name of the gallery(s) that the image has been used in/assigned to

Authorities & controlled vocabularies

Project name
DBCAH Projects

 

Guidelines and best practices for completing the form

  • “Clements Texas Papers” is  the default Curation project
  • The gallery element serves for internal purposes, and is left blank

 

 

Resources

DBCAH  Digital Archives Wiki

(https://wikis.utexas.edu/display/DAWG/Metadata+Style+Guide)

This space provides a place for staff of the Center to develop and share ideas, processes, and documentation, for the capture, storage, retrieval, and sharing of the Center's intellectual assets. The metadata style guide section of the wiki provides relevant information regarding the DBCAH metadata fields and the local controlled vocabularies.

 

Cataloguing resources

OCLC worldcat
https://www.worldcat.org/

University of Texas Libraries Catalogue
http://catalog.lib.utexas.edu/

Library terminology informally explained
https://www.w3.org/2001/sw/wiki/Library_terminology_informally_explained

 

External authorities & controlled vocabularies

Virtual International Authority File (VIAF)
https://viaf.org/

Library of Congress MARC Relator Terms
http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators.html

PBCore Roles
http://metadataregistry.org/concept/list/page/1/vocabulary_id/128.html

Geonames
http://www.geonames.org/countries/

Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects.html  

Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus (AAT)
http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/aat/index.html

Getty Thesaurus for Graphic Materials (LCTGM)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/tgm1/

PBCore Instantiation Physical
http://metadataregistry.org/concept/list/vocabulary_id/145.html

Resource type
http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/userguide/typeofresource.html

ISO639-3 language codes
http://www-01.sil.org/iso639-3/codes.asp

 

Other metadata Guidelines and Best Practices

University of North Texas Imput Guidelines for Descriptive Metadata
http://www.library.unt.edu/digital-projects-unit/input-guidelines-descriptive-metadata