***Please excuse
cross-posting***
CDWA-Lite is a lightweight
XML schema that describes core information for cultural materials and their
visual surrogates. It is described below.
The Advisory Committee for
this standard is seeking broad community review of it from a technical
viewpoint as well as for its value in collection cataloging and
access/sharing. We encourage completion of the survey (or those parts of it
you are comfortable with) at
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=625603692421
While the survey will
provide the most useful basis for review, additional comments outside the
survey are welcome at [log in to unmask]
Please respond before 31 May
2007. We anticipate a discussion of the results of this review in conjunction
with the MCN meeting in
- 10 November 2007.
CDWA-Lite Advisory
Committee:
Günter Waibel, OCLC/RLG
Nick Poole, MDA
Erin Coburn,
Nancy Allen, ARTstor
Michael Jenkins,
Kenneth Hamma, Getty Trust
CDWA-Lite:
getty.edu/research/conducting_research/standards/cdwa/cdwalite.html
Summary:
Over the last two years
ARTstor, the J. Paul Getty Trust, and RLG Programs/OCLC have worked together to
develop an XML schema to describe cultural materials and their surrogates to
provide an easier and more sustainable model for contributing to union
resources. This initiative was driven by the absence of a data content
standard specifically designed for unique cultural works, and a technical
format for expressing this data in a machine-readable format.
The result of this effort is
CDWA Lite, an XML schema based on the core elements from Categories for the
Description of Works of Art (CDWA), a framework for documenting and organizing
information on cultural works and images. CDWA Lite is intentionally
*lightweight,* to encourage and facilitate its use even by small institutions
in cataloging, online publishing, and exposing metadata.
The schema recommends using
Cataloging Cultural Objects (CCO), a data content standard for unique cultural
works that provides guidelines for selecting, ordering, and formatting data
used to populate elements. It is designed to promote good descriptive
cataloging, shared documentation, and enhanced end-user access. CDWA Lite was
specifically designed for use with the OAI Protocol for Metadata Harvesting
(OAI/PMH), which is a standard for delivering, sharing, and disseminating
metadata records expressed in XML syntax.
CDWA Lite is made up of 22
descriptive and administrative elements, of which only 9 are required; it is
not meant to be a comprehensive element set for describing or cataloging works
in a collection. Instead, a CDWA Lite record contains the minimal amount of
relevant and critical information needed for facilitating ease of access to
unique cultural works in the online environment. CDWA Lite reflects the core
descriptive documentation traditionally captured about works in collections,
which makes adoption of this model for contributing records to union resources
all the more attainable.
CDWA Lite intends to meet
the following objectives:
- To provide a simple,
low-barrier model for capturing the
essential amount of
information about unique cultural works in order to facilitate a high return on
accessibility and resource discovery. The minimal set of information needed to
facilitate ease of access to collections.
- To reduce the overhead
and labor involved in contributing to
aggregated resources and
digital repositories. Format and export data one time only in a standards-based
way for contribution to a variety of
*venues* in the online
environment.
- To ensure a method for
being able to provide updated, accurate
information about works of
art that are accessible in the online environment. Data integrity and accuracy
occurs at the source of the collection.
- To provide a mechanism
for bringing users back to a resource in
its native environment. Learn
more about a work in the context of its larger collection.
The Advisory Committee will
organize a public meeting to discuss responses to the CDWA Lite survey and
other feedback received from the community during the MCN conference in
November 2007, which will take place in
Günter
Waibel
RLG Programs, OCLC
voice: +1-650-691-2304 | fax: +1-650-964-1461
blog: www.hangingtogether.org
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