A Metadata Framework for Resource Discovery of Agricultural Resources

EDCL 2001 OAI WorkshopSeptember 4-9, Darmstadt, Germany

Presented by Irene Onyancha

Food and Agricultural Organisation(FAO) of the United NationsLibrary & documentation Systems Division (GIL)

AGRIS/CARIS & Documentation Group

Overview

Objectives Strategy and methodology adopted Results Implementation aspects compared to generic Dublin Core

Metadata Initiative Benefits to FAO, the Agricultural Community and the OAI Future Developments

Main Objective

To define an interoperability layer using emerging standards to facilitate the efficient dissemination of content of agricultural resource

Specific goals:-

To define a low barrier interoperability layer to aid primary resource discovery

to define a richer interoperability layer to aid secondary and tertiary resource discovery

to describe the application in a machine readable format, XML and RDF

to define a common format to homogenising set results on a search interface that enables parallel searching of heterogeneous archives

to assist the management of resources by data owners

Strategy and methodology adopted

Developed a conceptual map of different types of information resources used in agriculture

Evaluated standards and common resource description practices currently used in the domain of agriculture

Drafted a specification for a Dublin Core (DC) based standard for describing document resources

Gave preference to notation and vocabularies terms used in already established standards and and those used in describing agricultural resources

Focused on description of document resources but will proceed to define other types of resources such as projects, other multimedia resources such as photos, maps etc.

Identified a pool of core elements of which we used the DC guidelines to define respective qualifiers

Made a full description of each element and qualifier using the ISO standards for element description

Discussed the proposal on various agricultural forums both in-house and external, including at the Agstandards Mailing list. Agstandards@yahoogroups.com

Strategy and methodology adopted Contd..

Results

Unqualified Dublin Core based metadata Set

Qualified Dublin Core based Metadata set

Sample of an output using the application profile on one of the FAO in-house Databases. The AGRIS Archive

Implementation aspects compared to generic Dublin Core Metadata set

Merged the DC elements Creator, Contributor and Publisher to one main element which we named Creator

Dropped the element Source and elaborated the element Relation to include information of the source

Proposed a new core element, Target Audience Proposed new qualifiers that are not represented in the

generic DC guidelines Proposed the use of Authority files for elements and

qualifiers that have secondary information

Benefits of the application profile to FAO, the Agricultural Community and the OAI

Low-barrier interoperability layer that enables harvesting of metadata through the OAI and sharing and exchange of information in the Agricultural Community

Format for describing and maintaining FAO in-house Information Systems

Format for uniform presentation of meta information on the AGRIS Internet Portal

Format to for the AGRIS (Agricultural Information System). This will promote information exchange and self-reliance of data management by data owners especially in the developing countries

Format for a common interface for retrieval of resources from heterogeneous archives: The AGRIS MHS

Future Developments

Encode and publish the application profile both in XML Document Type Definition (DTD) and RDF

Develop software tools in support of the proposed AG standards (Agricultural Standards)

Develop guidelines for the application profile to assist implementers and users

Project to be presented for further discussion at the International DC-2001 Conference to be held in Tokyo, Japan on October 22-26, 2001

Future Developments Contd..

Workshop with FAO Partners and collaborative Governments to discuss the proposed AG standards

Monitor the impact of the proposed standard in the agricultural community

Register the metadata framework with the DCMI Metadata registry

Initiate a pilot project between FAO and Agricultural Subject gateways to provide a single access point for agricultural resources

For more Information...........

Metadata Framework for Resource Discovery of Agricultural Information: An introduction"

– http://www.fao.org/agris/MagazineArchive/MetaData/Introduction.doc

Presentation of a metadata set for the description of agricultural documents and document-like resources

• it provides the elements and qualifiers of the proposed standard, presented in a hierarchical structure.

– http://www.fao.org/agris/MagazineArchive/MetaData/PresentationSet.doc

Element Description for Agricultural Information Resources

• it provides a more detailed description of all the elements and qualifiers, including information on definitions, rules, and data typing.

– http://www.fao.org/agris/MagazineArchive/MetaData/ElementFinal.doc

Acknowledgement

I wish to acknowledge my colleagues and team members namely;

Fynvola LeHunt Ward, Frehiwot Fisseha, Kafkas Caprazli, Johannes Keizer and Steve Katz

who brought various expertise to the metadata working group.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION

Full element description

More detailed description of each element using a set of 10 attributes recommended by DCMI which conform to the ISO/IEC 11179 standards.

Eight attributes were proposed; Name, Label, Definition, Comments, Language, Datatype and Obligation

Other two, Version and Registration Authority were applied globally

Example: Element Title

Name TitleLabel TitleDefinition A name given to the resource. Typically, a title will be a name by

which the resource is formally knownDatatype AlphanumericMaximum Occurrence Not RepeatableLanguage EnglishObligation OptionalComments

Information Resources at FAO

INPHOGIEWS

EMPRES

CARIS AGRIS Centreat FAO HQ

AG

RIS

In

pu

t C

entr

esFAOCatalogue

FAO Full Text Document Repository

Departmental DatabasesAGRIS Information System

WEB ResourcesHttp://www.fao.org

FAOSTAT

MediaBase

FAO OutreachCentres

Information Resources at FAO....Contd..

Challenges Distributed databases Heterogeneous databases with different data structure and metadata

information Minimum interoperability

Vision Develop a focal point of access for agricultural

information. This has been achieved by the AGRIS Internet Portal

Present meta information in a common format enable ease access of agricultural information

AGRIS Internet Portal

INPHOGIEWS

EMPRES

CARIS AGRIS Centreat FAO HQ

AG

RIS

In

pu

t C

entr

es

FAOCatalogue

FAO Full Text Document Repository

Departmental Databases

AGRIS Information System

WEB ResourcesHttp://www.fao.org

FAOSTAT

MediaBase

AGRIS InternetPortal

AGRIS Multi-hostServer

Agricultural Subject Gateways

AGRIGATE

BIOME

NOVAGATE

AGNIC

AGRIS Internet Portal Contd.

Specialised information gateway maintained by FAO that provides a one stop access to relevant information on agriculture

Address information sharing, knowledge exchange and collaboration needs of Partners in Agricultural Community and and others such as the OAI

Host to the AGRIS Information System. This is network of islands of Agricultural Information

Host to other Agricultural Subject Gateways Hosts the AGRIS Multi-host Server

Agricultural Information System (AGRIS)

Co-operative information system of participating members mainly in Developing countries

Consists of references of literature produced within member country boundaries

Information processed and Maintained at FAO

Member countries to manage own resources

Ability to exchange information with other partners over the AGRIS Internet portal

AGRIS Centreat FAO HQ

AG

RIS

In

pu

t C

entr

es d

istr

ibu

ted

all

th

e w

orld

AGRIS Multi-Host Server

Location: Http://cfs.zadi.de/ Search Engine that allows parallel searching across

distributed bibliographical archives giving a one stop access to them without the need of centralising data

Developed in co-operation with ZADI (Zentralstelle für Agrardokumentation) in Germany

The archives are heterogeneous and have different data structure and metadata information

Develop common meta elements to homogenise search set results

ClientClient

AGRIS-ServerAGRIS-Server

DistributedDatabases

DistributedDatabases

Request Search Result

Search ResultsRequests

The AGRIS MHS System

Information Systems at FAO

AG standards Application Profile