Standards Introduction:
For repositories to be successful they must be able to share their content with wider audiences. Part of achieving this aim is developing and implementing standards that allow the easy sharing of information about what is contained in a repository with other services.
Developing repository platforms that allow the sharing of metadata and content in a variety of formats is a key recommendation of this project. This includes (as found below) recommendations on how cross-repository search services could improve their version identification.
Application Profiles:
Application profiles are a metadata specification for describing a digital object type. The use of an application profile helps to aggregate a more consistent, richer metadata from repositories when using a cross repository search tool. In addition to better searching of elements, it helps to facilitate navigation between different versions, because it provides metadata information down to the item level.
The Scholarly Works Application Profile (SWAP), previously known as the Eprints Application Profile, was the first to be developed and is based on Dublin Core and organised in a FRBRised structure (see below). Using this entity model allows a repository manager to make sure that the metadata they capture is unambiguously tied to the appropriate objects that they hold under a repository record.
There are several different application profiles recently in development to describe different types of digital object;
- The Scholarly Works Application Profile (SWAP) (external link)
- The Images Application Profile (external link)
- The Geospatial Application Profile (external link)
- The Time Based Application Profile
VIF strongly recommends that repository managers and those involved with repository software keep aware of developments in this area, as the use of these application profiles represents an excellent opportunity to ensure more accurate version metadata than is currently exported and/or exposed by most institutional repositories.
UKOLN will be continuing to support and promote the use of application profiles and detailed metadata sharing.
Cross Repository Searching and Harvesting:
Harvesting the most complete metadata information available about an object will provide the end user of a cross repository search service the beat opportunity of correctly identifying the version most appropriate for them.
VIF recommends that cross repository search portals investigate ways of identifying the most up to date version of an item above older versions in search results. This will prevent harvesters finding old versions and presenting them higher in results than newer versions.
The framework also suggests providers investigate the capture/export of thumbnails in harvesting process.
For more information on this issue please see:
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january06/foulonneau/01foulonneau.html
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