Dear Greg,
The issue you describe is indeed much more general. It all boils down to defining metadata standards for images used in our community. In other words, if we had metadata standards for images, we could use them to address the requirement you described.
The (informal) TDWG Imaging Interest Group (http://www.tdwg.org/activities/img/) has the remit of developing such a metadata profile, but as far as I know, it hasn't done so yet.
In the absence of such an image metadata profile, we, the GUID group, or the TAG, could spec out a temporary solution that could later be superseded by a more complete solution devised by the Imaging group. I believe that this is what you are proposing.
As an initial, temporary solution to let page generators build links to images on the web using LSID metadata, I would suggest the use of relevant Dublin Core metadata terms such as title and description, format. Other DC tags could be used as well. These tags are described on the web page below.
http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-terms/#H2
The problem is that there are no tags to point to a thumbnail. There is the Image vocabulary type, but that doesn't let a client distinguish between the actual, full size image and a thumbnail (not sure if that's a helpful distinction anyway). To accommodate that, we should create our own term for referring to thumbnails.
Does that sound like a feasible approach to solve this issue? Does the imaging group have any better solution to this problem?
Cheers,
Ricardo
Greg Riccardi wrote:
The LSID Applicability statement includes brief coverage, in Section 10, of citation styles that describe how to format the LSID for inclusion in pages. The statement does not include how to use LSIDs to create appropriate citations in Web pages or other documents that refer to the referenced digital object.
For example, a Web application has an LSID reference to a Morphbank image to be used in generating a Web page. The value of the LSID is of secondary importance to the image itself and its metadata. The page needs to include a version of the image, or a description of the image, that is supported by a URL that presents more detail about the referenced object. A typical presentation is a thumbnail of the image and some descriptive text. Clicking on the image or text directs the user to more detail about the image. The LSID is not directly useful for this application. The page generator will use the LSID to fetch the metadata and then use the metadata to generate the citations. The metadata should include text to be used in the citation and URLs that provide standard views of the object. In the case of images, a URL for a thumbnail image to be used in an image tag and a URL for a standard presentation should be included.
The issue is much more general. The presentation to a user of a reference to a digital object needs to be useful to the user. The LSID has no semantics and so is not useful. The general problem occurs in any digital repository and is a subject of study within the digital library community. The repository needs to provide standard language to be used in making a readable citation to one of its LSIDs.
As a producer of LSIDs, the Morphbank system will provide a suggestion as to the appropriate citation text, URLs that are appropriate for use in image tags, the URL of the standard presentation of the object, and copyright information. The page generation application can rely on finding standard metadata tags for use in its pages.
I advocate that the applicability document include metadata standards for presentation of (at least) the suggested citation text, and the URL for the standard presentation.
Greg
Greg Riccardi Professor of the College of Information riccardi@ci.fsu.edu Florida State University 850-644-2869 Tallahassee, FL 32306-2100 http://www.ci.fsu.edu/riccardi
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