[OAI-implementers] XSD file for qualified DC

[herbert van de sompel]

Tim,

I insert comments, below.

herbert

Tim Brody wrote:

> [OpenURL/DC]
>
> Reading Andy Powell's and Ann's Ariadne article:
> http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue27/metadata/
>
> You describe how an OpenURL URI could be used within "dcq:citation" and
> "dcq:references" to provide citation descriptions.
>
> You succinctly summarise my worries with OpenURL in a DC world:
> "Therefore, the OpenURL DESCRIPTION appears to offer all the functionality
> identified by the working group for encoding bibliographic citations for
> simple resource discovery, albeit using a less human-readable syntax than
> that proposed by the working group.   However, it may not offer the required
> functionality for individual Dublin Core based applications."
>
> Putting these into two points:
>
> 1) I have always got the feeling OpenURL deals with the "ideal" world. For
> my application, whether something is a conference proceeding, or journal
> article, isn't useful (and probably can't be determined). What is useful is
> knowing that this "thing" has a title, and an author, that can be compared
> to titles and authors in a database (most likely DC records).

2 comments:

* The more information one can provide to an application, the higher the chance
it can do something useful with it.  So, if one does have the information that
something is -- for instance -- a conference proceeding, it is extrememely
usefull to expose such information to applications.  That means: one should not
limit options from the start.  I am sure linking servers wouldn't be pleased at
all if we would start feeding them only Unqualified Dublin Core, as that would
limit their capabilities.

* Regarding the "ideal" world: I guess you are referring to the current version
of OpenURL, not the upcoming NISO version (of which I sent examples).  In that
version, all kinds of metadata formats can be used.  That includes expressive
formats, targeted at describing -- say -- a conference proceeding, as well as
less descriptive general-purpose ones, say Unqualified Dublin Core.  So, if in
your application there is no way that you can determine whether something is a
conference proceeding, and hence you are not in a position to use an expressive
format, you can use unqualified Dublin Core within OpenURL.  As a matter, of
fact in the XML-encoding (see below) you can do both at the same time.

> 2) In XML, I suspect a more elegant syntax could be used than OpenURL (which
> uses overloading to cope with name=value URIs).

Again, I think you are referring to the current version of OpenURL.  The NISO
version will come with a name=value encoding (because HTTP GET is something that
seems to be used a lot out there) and hopefully/probably with an XML encoding.

> I want to use OpenURL if it is the right choice, not because it is the only
> choice. And at the moment, I don't think its the right choice - hence my
> suggestion for a "DC-inspired" format :-)

With the upcoming OpenURL, you don't have to make an a priori choice regarding
the format that you will use to describe a reference.  OpenURL becomes a
"container" in which you can stuff a reference described in a variety of ways,
as well as descriptions of the context in which the citation appears (such as
the paper in which the reference is made).

herbert

--
Herbert Van de Sompel
digital library research & prototyping
Los Alamos National Laboratory - Research Library
+ 1 (505) 667 1267 / http://lib-www.lanl.gov/~herbertv/

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