Adapting DSpace to Current Dublin Core Standards

Current Dublin Core Status

1998-2008

There were 15 dublin core elements in the dc: namespace. All of these elements were optional and repeatable. DSpace, OAI-PMH, ... were based on these elements.

contributor, coverage, creator, date, description, format, identifier, language, publisher, relation, rights, source, subject, title, type

Post 2008

The existing 15 elements were extended with range and domain and new elements were added. To ensure "backwards compatibility" with existing implementations, these new changes were located in a new namespace, dcterms:
So dc:creator can't be confused with dcterms:creator, a property that can now have a range and domain.

Goals for DSpace

Exposing DSpace metadata in the dcterms namespace

If other new standards or applications will require the use of the dcterms: namespace instead of the dc: namespace, DSpace won't be able to comply.

Implementing/Verify range for properties that require this

Range defines the vocabulary or syntax which must be followed by a property. For example, the coverage property has following range:

http://purl.org/dc/terms/LocationPeriodOrJurisdiction

Examples: Format has the range MediaTypeorExtent and it's recommended to use the MIME types there.

Implementing/Verify domain for properties that require this

If a dcterm property specifies a domain, it means that the property can only be applied to a specific type of item it describes.

Example: The new term BibliographicCitation has the domain Bibliographic resource. This means that by specifying the property BibliographicCitation, it automatically implies that the item you're applying it to is a bibliographic resource.

Concrete changes for specific properties

• Contributor
  • Domain: none
  • Range: Agent Class
• Coverage
  • Domain: none
  • Range: LocationPeriodOrJurisdiction (recommended controlled vocabulary like Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN))
• Creator
  • Domain: none
  • Range: Agent Class
• Date
  • Domain: none
  • Range: Literal (recommended W3CDTF profile of ISO 8601)
• Description
  • Domain:
  • Range:
• Format
  • Domain:
  • Range:
• Identifier
  • Domain:
  • Range:
• Language
  • Domain:
  • Range:
• Publisher
  • Domain:
  • Range:
• Relation
  • Domain:
  • Range:
• Rights
  • Domain:
  • Range:
• Source
  • Domain:
  • Range:
• Subject
  • Domain:
  • Range:
• Title
  • Domain:
  • Range:
• Type
  • Domain:
  • Range:

Possible Approaches

Adding a new schema dcterms that lives next to the standard dc schema

Pro

• Possibly easier to ensure backwards compatibility, as we're not touching the standard schema.
• ...

Con

• ...