Reading #4

Foulonneau, M., &  Riley, J. (2008). Technical interoperability.  In Metadata for Digital Resources: Implementation, Systems Design and Interoperability ( pp. 154-164).  Oxford: Chandos Publishing.

This section of the book describes how metadata can be used to represent complex or multi-part resources and outlines best practices for interoperability.  The METS (Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard) Schema is the most heavily used schema for complex resources in the cultural heritage field.  METS files are unique in their ability to include the set of files that make up the digital resource, structural metadata, descriptive metadata, administrative metadata and behavioral metadata.  Furthermore, the METS schema does not mandate which metadata formats should be used to describe the resource, but more so acts as a container that holds all of the metadata formats involved in describing the digital files together.  For example, the METS Navigator application, developed at Indiana University, uses the structural map and pointers defined in the METS file to access the multiple parts of the object.  Together with a page-turning interface and user-friendly navigation, METS Navigator provides simple, intuitive and high-level browsing, flipping and searching capabilities.  Concerning interoperability, the authors discuss several challenges in technical interoperability, such as information loss and ensuring accurate description of the desired entity, otherwise known as the one-to-one principal.  Metadata mapping, the practical stage of technical interoperability, is outlined with a section on mapping tools.  Methods using XSLT stylesheets, Java, Perl and Python are briefly discussed.