Title: Intermediary schemas and semantic linkages: an integrated architecture for complex digital archives

Authors: Richard Gartner

Addresses: Centre for e-Research, King's College London, 26-29 Drury Lane, London WC2B 5RL, UK

Abstract: This article attempts to assess the feasibility of a Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS) based XML approach to integrated metadata for a complex digital archive. In particular, it aims to test whether such an approach can emulate two key features of RDF-based metadata architectures: the flexible reusability of components and the encoding of semantic linkages. In doing so, it seeks to establish whether this approach can be a viable alternative to ontology-based models for digital archive metadata. To do this, the standard use of METS as a packaging schema is extended as an 'intermediary schema' to enable the reuse of conceptual models within its architecture; in addition, the semantic mapping of components to concept repositories is achieved using the METS structural map and the Metadata Authority Description Schema (MADS) schema for controlled vocabularies.

Keywords: integrated metadata; intermediary XML schemas; METS; MADS; semantic linking; digital archives; conceptual models; metadata reuse; ontologies; flexible reusability; component reuse; metadata encoding.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMSO.2014.065437

International Journal of Metadata, Semantics and Ontologies, 2014 Vol.9 No.4, pp.289 - 298

Received: 09 Feb 2013
Accepted: 03 Jan 2014
Published online: 24 Oct 2014 *

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