collection-description
From Microformats
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Collection Description
Collection descriptions might describe anything that was a group of physical or digital things. My original viewpoint is from library and information science, but I believe the notion of a collection description could be used in other disciplines http://www.selfdescription.org - Tim Hodson (http://informationtakesover.co.uk)
Background
A 3 month investigation into the possibilities and some background survey work was carried out, and results of which can be read in Self Description: Collection description remodeled as a microformat available as a pdf. Self-Description-Tim-Hodson-Msc.pdf (http://www.selfdescription.org/Self-Description-Tim-Hodson-Msc.pdf)
Existing metadata schema
Dublin Core are working on a collection description application profile which is nearing completion. DC CD AP (http://dublincore.org/groups/collections/collection-application-profile/)
Naturally the DC CD AP specifies metadata that should be in a collection description, and the metadata sets are used by the IESR (http://iesr.ac.uk), SCONE (http://scone.strath.ac.uk/), Archives Hub (http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/), (all with other local data) but noticeably, not your average library or museum.
A collection description re-modelled as a microformat would allow collections to be discoverable on any library website suitably marked-up, thus opening up an organisation's collections to a wider audience.
Examples
Collection descriptions in the wild.
- The British Library (http://www.bl.uk/collections/toppage.html) has extensive information on it's website to explain and describe it's collections.
- Leeds University Library (http://www.leeds.ac.uk/library/spcoll/prbooks.htm), Printed books collections.
- Stanford University Library (http://www-sul.stanford.edu/libraries_collections/librcoll_a_z.html)
- Further examples can be found in Appendix C of Self Description: Collection description remodeled as a microformat Self-Description-Tim-Hodson-Msc.pdf (http://www.selfdescription.org/Self-Description-Tim-Hodson-Msc.pdf)
