[tdwg-content] dcterms:creator

Fri Jan 14 17:13:26 CET 2011

Well, within one's own database I guess that would depend on the kind of 
record structure you set up.  In RDF it is clearer.  For example in
http://www.biodiversitycollectionsindex.org/collection/rdf/id/35259
you see an RDF document that describes two things: the Vanderbilt 
Arboretum, and the RDF document itself which describes the arboretum.  
They are demarcated within separate XML container elements.  The element
<tc:Collection rdf:about="urn:lsid:biocol.org:col:35259">
contains the metadata about the Arboretum itself, which is a physical, 
non-information resource.  The element
<rdf:Description 
rdf:about="http://www.biodiversitycollectionsindex.org/collection/rdf/id/35259"> 

contains the metadata about the document describing the arboretum which 
is an information resource deliverable via the web.  Both of these 
elements include a dc:created property.  The arboretum's dc:created 
property has a string literal value of "1988" because that's when the 
arboretum was officially recognized as existing.  The document has a 
dc:created property with a literal value of "2010-08-01 00:27:28" 
because that was the date when the metadata document was first created 
by Biodiversity Collections Index.

In another example:
http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu/baskauf/51899.rdf
the metadata describes an image, and the file containing the image 
metadata.  The image description is in the
<rdf:Description rdf:about="http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu/baskauf/51899">
element with http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu/baskauf/51899 being the 
identifier for the image and the image metadata document description is 
in the
<rdf:Description 
rdf:about="http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu/baskauf/51899.rdf">
element.  The image has a property
<dcterms:creator 
rdf:resource="http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu/contact/baskauf"/>
which says that the image was created by me (represented by the URI 
http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu/contact/baskauf) and the metadata 
document has a property
<dcterms:creator 
rdf:resource="http://biocol.org/urn:lsid:biocol.org:col:35115"/>
which says that the metadata document was created by the Bioimages 
collection (represented by the URI 
http://biocol.org/urn:lsid:biocol.org:col:35115). 

So in both of these examples, the RDF explicitly states what the 
description is "about" by means of the rdf:about attribute in the 
opening tag of the XML element. 

Hope this helps and maybe somebody else can comment about this in other 
contexts.
Steve

Aaike De Wever wrote:
> Dear Steve,
>
> <snip>
>   
>> Again, I think the solution is to be clear about what resource one is talking about 
>> rather than to try to come up with separate terms for creator, language, 
>> and created for three different types of resources. 
>>     
> </snip>
>
> As an up-to-now passive watcher of this list and dwc/dc newbie, I am wondering how exactly one can make clear whether it is the specimen, image of metadata one is talking about?
>
> Thanks for clarifying!
>
> With best regards,
> Aaike
>
>
> On 14 Jan 2011, at 15:29, Steve Baskauf wrote:
>
>   
>> It seems to me that part of the problem here is that there are several 
>> types of resources that are being mixed.  There is the specimen itself, 
>> there is the image of the specimen, and there is the metadata record.  
>> The person digitizing the specimen is the dc:creator of the specimen 
>> image.  The collector of the specimen or the collector's institution is 
>> the dc:creator of the specimen.  The person entering the metadata into 
>> the computer or that person's institution is the dc:creator of the 
>> metadata record.  Of course a lot of people aren't going to care about 
>> this level of detail in keeping separate records for those three types 
>> of resources.  But those same people also probably aren't going to care 
>> about keeping separate records of who all of the different creators are 
>> either. 
>>
>> The same kind of issue exists with other terms, such as dc:language and 
>> dcterms:created.  If you specify dc:language, is that the language on 
>> the specimen label, the language of other things on the image (like text 
>> on added scale bars), or the language of the metadata?  Again, I think 
>> the solution is to be clear about what resource one is talking about 
>> rather than to try to come up with separate terms for creator, language, 
>> and created for three different types of resources. 
>>
>> Steve
>>
>> Gregor Hagedorn wrote:
>>     
>>> Using Creator is ok for the person digitizing the specimen (although
>>> contributor may be more appropriate), but the person who originally
>>> wrote the label is an dc:creator as well.
>>>
>>> dcterms are meant to have a wide scope and by information-lossy. My
>>> comment is only: do not define: if there is a dc:creator, then it was
>>> the person who digitized.
>>>
>>> Gregor
>>>       
>
>
>
> --
> Aaike De Wever
> BioFresh Science Officer
> Freshwater Laboratory, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences
> Vautierstraat 29, 1000 Brussels 
> Belgium
> tel.: +32(0)2 627 43 90
> mobile.: +32(0)486 28 05 93
> email: <aaike.dewever at naturalsciences.be>
> skype: aaikew
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> LinkedIn: <http://be.linkedin.com/in/aaikedewever>
> BioFresh: <http://www.freshwaterbiodiversity.eu/> and <http://data.freshwaterbiodiversity.eu/>
> Belgian Biodiversity Platform: <http://www.biodiversity.be>
>
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>
>   

-- 
Steven J. Baskauf, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer
Vanderbilt University Dept. of Biological Sciences

postal mail address:
VU Station B 351634
Nashville, TN  37235-1634,  U.S.A.

delivery address:
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office: 2128 Stevenson Center
phone: (615) 343-4582,  fax: (615) 343-6707
http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu

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