[OAI-general] OAI and DC Metadata analysis

[Jewel Ward]

Hello:

I've been lurking on this list for a bit.

I am a former student of Micheal Nelson's and wrote my master's paper,
which I turned in last month, on OAI and DC Metadata.  Michael suggested
that I post the results to OAI-General.

The link to the paper and the abstract are below.  On the web site, in
addition to the paper itself, I have made available lots o' figures and
tables, most of which were not inserted in the paper itself. 

Link:

http://www.foar.net/research/index.html

Abstract:

Jewel Ward.  A Quantitative Analysis of Dublin Core Metadata Element Set
(DCMES) Usage in Data Providers Registered with the Open Archives
Initiative (OAI).  A Master's paper for the M.S. in
I.S. degree.  November, 2002.  68 pages.  Advisor:  Gregory B. Newby


This research describes an empirical study of how the Dublin Core Metadata
Element Set (DCMES) is used by 100 Data Providers (DPs) registered with
the Open Archives Initiative (OAI).  The research was conducted to
determine whether or not the DCMES is used to its full capabilities.  

Eighty-two of 100 DPs have metadata records available for analysis.  DCMES
usage varies by type of DP.  The average number of Dublin Core elements
per record is eight, with an average of 91,785 Dublin Core elements used
per DP.  Five of the 15 elements of the DCMES are used 71% of the
time.  The results show the DCMES is not used to its fullest extent within
DPs registered with OAI.


Best Regards,

Jewel Ward

--
Jewel Ward, Graduate Student
The School of Information and Library Science
Univ of North Carolina @ Chapel Hill
wardj@ils.unc.edu     http://ils.unc.edu/~wardj