Memoria Digital Library
Metadata and Data Sharing and Interchange
The Memoria Digital Library has a twofold role and the metadata in it meet the requirements
of the master.dtd1 or msnkaip.dtd2. If metadata from other systems are to be imported, they
must meet the same requirements or at least the requirements of the exchange format as
defined in OpenM.dtd and its family. The roles are as follows:
1. shared catalogue of historical documents - the catalogue records do not need
references to images (i.e. Page element from OpenM.dtd is not mandatory and
OpenM.dtd can be applied), but they can contain reference to records or data from
another system or digital library (i.e. RelatedObject element is then necessarily
obligatory and OpenMRelOb.dtd is applied);
2. digital library of visual and other kinds of representations of the digitized documents the catalogue records must contain references to digital images or any other data files
(i.e. Page element from is then mandatory and the OpenMDigiRep.dtd is applied). A
special case is when there are no pages (for example, in case of one-sheet documents);
in this situation the DigitalRepresentation element is mandatory, while the Page
element is not.
The Memoria Digital Library contains metadata records and data files as images and TEI
structured full texts; it will contain also other types of data files such as audio and video files.
For interoperability with other similar systems and enhancement and integration of access to
historical documents, the following co-operation principles are being set up:
Acquisition of external metadata for the Memoria Digital Library
Native format
The native format of the Memoria Digital Library is specified in msnkaip.dtd, where the
bibliographic component is master.dtd. Metadata following these specifications will require
no conversions and they will be acquired off-line on an agreement basis with partners. Such
metadata can represent only catalogue records or they can contain also references to external
data files or records.
Exchange format
The external metadata for inclusion into the Memoria Digital Library are XML records
corresponding to the OpenM.dtd and its family that is specified in the Annex. Such records
are acquired:
1. off-line in batches from the partner, processed, and included into the Memoria
database. The records can contain references to external entities such as image
representations of the digitized documents or more detailed metadata records. The
1
http://digit.nkp.cz/MMSB/1.0/masterx.dtd
http://digit.nkp.cz/MMSB/1.0/msnkaip.dtd or better http://digit.nkp.cz/MMSB/1.0/msnkaip.xsd and Schema
documentation at http://digit.nkp.cz/MMSB/1.0/dokumentace/msnkaip.html
2
image representations can remain on partners’ servers and they can be accessed
through the Memoria Digital Library interface. The more detailed metadata records (if
any) will always remain in the partners’ systems, which should be able to make them
available on the Open URL basis.
2. on-line via the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting3
(OAI/PMH) as XML records corresponding to the OpenM.dtd
If a partner has records that are considered valuable for the Memoria Digital Library and these
records are in any other documented structured form(at), the import is possible on the basis of
a mutual agreement.
Sharing of internal metadata from the Memoria Digital Library
The internal metadata are shared in both reference version (English or Latin languages as
cataloguing language) and national version (national language as cataloguing language).
Metadata and data (where available) are shared on-line on Internet in the Memoria Digital
Library at the URL http://www.memoria.cz.
The internal metadata can be also shared via the protocols as follows:
1. Z39.50 with Bath Profile Functional Area A Level1 in the UNIMARC format;
2. Open URL
3. OAI-PMH as XML records corresponding to OpenM.dtd (see Annex)
Written 21 January 2004 by Adolf Knoll
Contacts:
Mr Adolf Knoll, adolf.knoll@nkp.cz (project co-ordination)
Mr Karel Kučera, karel.kucera@aipberoun.cz (developer)
Annex:
OpenM.dtd family variations OpenMRelOb.dtd , OpenMDigiRep.dtd, and
OpenMDigiRepOneSheet.dtd
These formats are also represented by the diagrams on the following pages. The names of
elements are self explanatory, while their definitions are given by the attached *.dtd and *.xsd
definition files. For the element Language the ISO 636 2-character coding has been preferred.
The GMD element indicates the type of the document (the typology has to be agreed).
3
The Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting, Version 2.0, see
http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/openarchivesprotocol.htm and also Implementation Guidelines for the
Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting - Guidelines for Repository Implementers, Version
2.0, see http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/guidelines-repository.htm
Diagram of the Exchange Format OpenM.dtd
Diagram of the Exchange Format OpenMRelOb.dtd
Diagram of the Exchange Format OpenMDigiRep.dtd
Diagram of the Exchange Format OpenMDigiRepOneSheet.dtd