PhotoCat

In order to add descriptive metadata to new digitized image collections Indiana University Digital Library Program created a

metadata editing tool for objects in Fedora. The guiding principal for this application is to create something that makes

metadata entry enough for non technical staff and prevents time-consuming repetative tasks. Towards this end, features such as

controlled vocabulary integration, configurable suggestion of entered terms, and batch updates were early requirements.

Architecture

The application is written in Java using the Click framework. Search functionality is based on an SRU server that is integrated

with fedora using JMS. A MySQL database is used to maintain user account information, collection configuration information and to

back asynchrnous operations such as batch updates.

Field model

For each "Collection" exposed for editing in this application, a configuration files allows any number of fields to be set up.

Each field is mapped to an element or set of elements in the underlying metadata datastream. For example, in MODS, a

"Photographer" field could be set up whose entered value would result in the following XML fragment.

<mods:name type="personal">
  <mods:namePart>Doe, John</mods:namePart>
  <mods:role>
    <mods:roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">Photographer</mods:roleTerm>
    <mods:roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="code">pht</mods:roleTerm>
  </mods:role>
</mods:name>

The field configuration also includes an HTML fragment that represents the display of the field input in the user interface.

Challenges

• Semantics and performance for merging existing data and new data for batch updates

Future Development

• Support more metadata models
• Support pluggable search system
• Improved resolution of batch update conflicts (concurrency and overwrite/add/ignore)

Links

• OR09 Presentation