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.

http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-terms/

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 - Needed for both New and Existing properties

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 - Only needed for New Properties

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 existing 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: none
  • Range: none

• Format
  • Domain: none
  • Range: MediaTypeOrExtent (Recommended list of internet media types (MIME)).

• Identifier
  • Domain: none
  • Range: Literal

• Language
  • Domain: none
  • Range: LinguisticSystem (Recommended RFC 4646 IETF standard)

• Publisher
  • Domain: none
  • Range: Agent

• Relation
  • Domain: none
  • Range: none (YET)
  • Note: This term is intended to be used with NON-LITERAL values. As of December 2007, the DCMI Usage board is seeking a way to express this intention with a formal range declaration.

• Rights
  • Domain: none
  • Range: RightsStatement

• Source
  • Domain: none
  • Range: none (YET)
  • Note: This term is intended to be used with NON-LITERAL values. As of December 2007, the DCMI Usage board is seeking a way to express this intention with a formal range declaration.

• Subject
  • Domain: none
  • Range: none (YET) For spatial or temporal topic of the resource, use the Coverage element instead.
  • Note: This term is intended to be used with NON-LITERAL values. As of December 2007, the DCMI Usage board is seeking a way to express this intention with a formal range declaration.

• Title
  • Domain: none
  • Range: Literal

• Type
  • Domain:none
  • Range: Any Class? (reference needed) (Recommended usage is the DCMI Type Vocabulary (DCMIType). For file format, physical medium or dimensions: use format!

New properties

Following properties are recent and haven't been part of the standard DSpace metadata schema. However, some of these overlap with other properties in DSpace

• Abstract
  • Domain: none
  • Range: none
  • Possible DSpace overlap: dc.description.abstract

• accessRights
  • Domain: none
  • Range: RightsStatement
  • Possible DSpace overlap: ....... (to add)

• accrualMethod
  • Domain: Collection
  • Range: MethodOfAccrual
  • Possible DSpace overlap: none?

• accrualPeriodicity
  • Domain: Collection
  • Range: Frequency
  • Possible DSpace overlap: none?

• accrualPolicy
  • Domain: Collection
  • Range: Policy
  • Possible DSpace overlap: collection policies?

• alternative
  • Domain: none
  • Range: Literal
  • Possible DSpace overlap: dc.title.alternative

• audience
  • Domain: none
  • Range: AgentClass
  • Possible DSpace overlap: none?

• available
  • Domain: none
  • Range: Literal
  • Possible DSpace overlap: dc.date.available

• bibliographicCitation - INTERESTING ONE
  • Domain: BibliographicResource
  • Range: Literal
  • Possible DSpace overlap: dc.identifier.citation

• conformsTo
  • Domain: none
  • Range: Standard
  • Possible DSpace overlap: none?

• created
  • Domain: none
  • Range: Literal
  • Possible DSpace overlap: dc.date.created

• dateAccepted
  • Domain:none
  • Range: Literal
  • Possible DSpace overlap: none?

• dateCopyrighted
  • Domain:none
  • Range: Literal
  • Possible DSpace overlap: embargo solutions?

• dateSubmitted
  • Domain:none
  • Range: Literal
  • Possible DSpace overlap: dc.date.submitted

• educationLevel
  • Domain:none
  • Range:AgentClass
  • Possible DSpace overlap: none?

• extent
  • Domain:none
  • Range: SizeOrDuration
  • Possible DSpace overlap: dc.format.extent

• hasFormat
  • Domain: none
  • Range: none (YET)
  • Note: This term is intended to be used with NON-LITERAL values. As of December 2007, the DCMI Usage board is seeking a way to express this intention with a formal range declaration.
  • Possible DSpace overlap: none?

• hasPart
  • Domain: none
  • Range: none (YET)
  • Note: This term is intended to be used with NON-LITERAL values. As of December 2007, the DCMI Usage board is seeking a way to express this intention with a formal range declaration.
  • Possible DSpace overlap: dc.relation.haspart

• hasVersion
  • Domain: none
  • Range: none (YET)
  • Note: This term is intended to be used with NON-LITERAL values. As of December 2007, the DCMI Usage board is seeking a way to express this intention with a formal range declaration.
  • Possible DSpace overlap: dc.relation.hasversion

• instructionalMethod
  • Domain: none
  • Range: MethodOfInstruction
  • Possible DSpace overlap: none?

• isFormatOf
  • Domain: none
  • Range: none (YET)
  • Note: This term is intended to be used with NON-LITERAL values. As of December 2007, the DCMI Usage board is seeking a way to express this intention with a formal range declaration.
  • Possible DSpace overlap: dc.relation.isformatof

• isPartOf
  • Domain: none
  • Range: none (YET)
  • Note: This term is intended to be used with NON-LITERAL values. As of December 2007, the DCMI Usage board is seeking a way to express this intention with a formal range declaration.
  • Possible DSpace overlap: dc.relation.ispartof

• isReferencedBy
  • Domain: none
  • Range: none (YET)
  • Note: This term is intended to be used with NON-LITERAL values. As of December 2007, the DCMI Usage board is seeking a way to express this intention with a formal range declaration.
  • Possible DSpace overlap: dc.relation.isreferencedby

• isReplacedBy
  • Domain: none
  • Range: none (YET)
  • Note: This term is intended to be used with NON-LITERAL values. As of December 2007, the DCMI Usage board is seeking a way to express this intention with a formal range declaration.
  • Possible DSpace overlap: dc.relation.isreplacedby

• isRequiredBy
  • Domain: none
  • Range: none (YET)
  • Note: This term is intended to be used with NON-LITERAL values. As of December 2007, the DCMI Usage board is seeking a way to express this intention with a formal range declaration.
  • Possible DSpace overlap: none?

• issued
  • Domain: none
  • Range: Literal
  • Possible DSpace overlap: dc.date.issued

• isVersionOf
  • Domain: none
  • Range: none (YET)
  • Note: This term is intended to be used with NON-LITERAL values. As of December 2007, the DCMI Usage board is seeking a way to express this intention with a formal range declaration.
  • Possible DSpace overlap: dc.relation.isversionof

• license TRICKY ONE
  • Domain: none
  • Range: LicenseDocument
  • Possible DSpace overlap: item license

• mediator
  • Domain: none
  • Range: AgentClass
  • Possible DSpace overlap: none?

• medium
  • Domain: PhysicalResource
  • Range: PhysicalMedium
  • Possible DSpace overlap: dc.format.medium

• modified
  • Domain: none
  • Range: Literal
  • Possible DSpace overlap: dc.date.updated (wasn't there a dc.date.modified????)

• provenance
  • Domain: none
  • Range: ProvenanceStatement
  • Possible DSpace overlap: dc.description.provenance

• references
  • Domain: none
  • Range: none (YET)
  • Note: This term is intended to be used with NON-LITERAL values. As of December 2007, the DCMI Usage board is seeking a way to express this intention with a formal range declaration.
  • Possible DSpace overlap: dc.citation ????????????

• replaces
  • Domain: none
  • Range: none (YET)
  • Note: This term is intended to be used with NON-LITERAL values. As of December 2007, the DCMI Usage board is seeking a way to express this intention with a formal range declaration.
  • Possible DSpace overlap: dc.relation.replaces

• requires
  • Domain: none
  • Range: none (YET)
  • Note: This term is intended to be used with NON-LITERAL values. As of December 2007, the DCMI Usage board is seeking a way to express this intention with a formal range declaration.
  • Possible DSpace overlap: dc.relation.requires

• rightsHolder
  • Domain: none
  • Range: Agent
  • Possible DSpace overlap: dc.rights.holder

• spatial
  • Domain: none
  • Range: Location
  • Possible DSpace overlap: dc.coverage.spatial

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

• ...