Conservation OnLine Metadata Schema

This document is obsolete

CoOL now uses Dublin Core; notes on implementation will be prepared when time permits. Mar 2002

Some HTML documents in CoOL--especially electronic versions of serials and other documents that originated in print--have locally defined metadata encoded in META elements with the HEAD element. This document defines minimal resource description schema for CoOL. In some cases these elements duplicate the semantics of the Dublin Core elements, in other cases (eg. descriptors for analytics) they fill gaps in (unqualified) DC.

Update: 1/2000: The California State Library has developed a set of guidelines for handling metadata and these will, in all likelihood, be adopted in CoOL. see: http://www.library.ca.gov/assets/images/metadocfinalrev.PDF (PDF File)

All descriptors are optional and repeatable unless otherwise noted. Descriptor names are, formally, case sensitive but most of my applications will ignore case in practice. When used in concert with DC descriptors, prefix "CoOL.", e.g, "CoOL.ti".

Note that the existence of "au" and "ti" or "DC.Creator" and "DC.Title" descriptor trigger the inclusion of an article in CoOL's author (and eventually title) indices. They are intended to be used only once per bibliographic entity, no matter how many file entities may be involved: e.g. for the main page of a multipage monograph, or for the main page of each article of a serial (but not for the main page of the serial itself).

tiComplete formal title, including subtitles. Optional and nonrepeatable.

Analogous to dc.title. Differs from HTML TITLE element in that the latter identifies document in a wide (universal) context and is overloaded (it must serve as metadata, as an window label, as a bookmark descriptor, etc.) and for practical purposes must be relatively short. ti on the other hand should be the same as you would use in a citation in a bibliography.

au Individual author of this item. Semantically identical to DC.Creator, but format is
Firstname Middlenames surname-prefixes surname surname-suffixes.

Must not include non-name components such as Honorifics, Degrees, affiliation, etc. Examples:

Walter A.I. de la Fogg III
F. George Peters
R. Cluster, Jr.

corpau Same as au except that it indicates an organization or other corporate entity. The name should be fully spelled out (i.e. not an acronym), If the organization's name begins with an article, the article should be included

e.g. The Western Association for Art Conservation

ISSN The ISSN of the serial of which this item is an analytic. Optional and nonrepeatable.

The ISSN may also appear in the "main" page of the serial itself.

Seriestitle The complete formal title of the series, spelled out fully, excluding subtitles (not an abbreviation). Optional and nonrepeatable.

Vol Volume or year number, not padded with zeroes. Optional and nonrepeatable.
Issue Issue number, not padded with zeroes. Optional and nonrepeatable.
Pubdate Formal date of publication of item. Optional and non-repeatable. For items that are derived from/versions of printed material, the printing date should be used unless this electronic text is to be considered a new publication.

Semantically identical to DC.Date except for format. Format is (typically)

Jan 1998
Jan 23, 1998

Article-Id Indicates the position of the item within the volume (or other enclosing collection). Optional and nonrepeatable. Format is typically 3 digits (padded with zeroes)
copyright Indicates the method by which permission has been received to make the item available in CoOL. NB this does not indicate any transfer of rights to CoOL, nor does it indicate that CoOL does or does not have any rights in the material.
permission-implied
The item (a) has been contributed directly by the author, publisher, or other copyright owner (b) has been contributed to the Conservation DistList or other entity for which CoOL serves as archives (b) is in the public domain (e.g. government publications) (c) is otherwise reasonably believed to be
permission-on-file
Written or electronic communication granting permission to make the item available is on file.
permission-needed
For internal use only. We are awaiting permission from the copyright owner and this document should not normally be retrievable. If you encounter a document with this encoding, please notify CoOL.
permission-tasini
The item is part of a revision of a compilation or collective work as covered by 201(c). See Tasini et al vs The New York Times et al and National Writers Union position on the case.
classCode Classification code. Reserved for future use. Probably will never be used because DC.Subject serves the same function.
CoOL-Id" An identifier guaranteed to be unique (probably universally, unless someone else has appropriated the identifier "CoOL"). The identifier consists of the token CoOL: followed by a string, typically derived from some combination of external UID or series name, volume, issue, item identifier, etc. The content of everything beyond "CoOL:" is determined locally and should be considered opaque to the user In other words, you shouldn't try to second-guess what the subfields mean)

e.g. CoOL:ISSN:0276-8291:11:5:012





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This page last changed: October 05, 2004