SCDL Guidelines & Best Practices


Item Level Metadata

The element descriptions presented here represent the Dublin Core fields for the item-level records created and maintained for the South Carolina Digital Library. These guidelines are based on the Collaborative Digitization Program's metadata standards: http://www.mndigital.org/digitizing/standards/metadata.pdf

Acknowledgments

Choose an Element:

Title Description Resource Identifier Note
Alternative Title Digital Collection Language Bibliographic Citation
Creator Web Site Digitization Specs.
Contributor Contributing Institution Date Digital
Date Rights Type  
Source Coverage Format  
Subject SC County Media Type  

Element Descriptions

Title

  • Mandatory
  • e.g., Title: no. 5, Biblia Sacra Latina, Versio Vulgata : fragment
    From: Otto F. Ege Manuscript Collection, University of South Carolina

    • Remove all leading articles. For example: The, A, An
    • Follow AACR2 rules for capitalization, punctuation, etc.
    • If no title, title supplied by cataloger, but do not put title in brackets. Project leader determines conventions for supplying titles. Most items from collections following SC and WSM standards will already have a title

Alternative Title

  • Not Mandatory
  • e.g., Alternative Title: Bible, France, Early XIIIth Century
    From: Otto F. Ege Manuscript Collection, University of South Carolina
    Enter each Title.Alternative in one field, separated by a semicolon and one space
    • Follow AACR2 rules for capitalization, punctuation, etc.
    • Remove all leading articles. For example: The, A, An
    • Use for subtitles, titles translated into English, titles with ampersands spelled out, etc

Creator

  • Mandatory (if applicable)
  • e.g., Creator : Hamilton, Paul, 1762 - 1816
    From: Paul Hamilton Papers, University of South Carolina
    • Refers to the entity responsible for the intellectual content of the item
    • Enter all Creators in one field, separating each by a semicolon and one space
    • Follow AACR2 rules for capitalization, punctuation, etc.
    • Use LC Authority File for form of corporate and personal names if no established heading exists, project leader makes decision on name
    • Enter personal names in inverted form: last name, first name. Enter corporate names in full direct form
    • May include role of creator, in parentheses after name (e.g. photographer, author, printer, etc.

Contributor

  • Mandatory (if applicable)
  • e.g., Contributor : Bonneville, William W.; Bonneville, Nancy E. (former owners)
    From: The Bonneville Collection: 19th Century Images of Native Americans and Soldiers in the American Mid-West, University of South Carolina
    • Enter all Contributors in one field, separating each by a semicolon and one space
    • Follow AACR2 for capitalization, punctuation, etc.
    • Use LC Authority File for form of corporate and personal names
    • Use this field for entities that had a secondary role in the intellectual content of the original item, and so are not listed in Creator field
    • Can include role of contributor in parentheses after name

Date

  • Mandatory
  • e.g., Date: 1913-05-13

    • Each record will have only one Date.Original
    • Use date(s) associated with the creation or availability of the original item, not of the digital version
    • Always make an educated guess so that there are very few missing dates
    • If the approximate date is known, use “circa YYYY” or “ca. YYYY”
    • If definitely missing date, use: “n.d.”
    • Follow ISO 8601 standard of YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY-MM or YYYY. Only use what part of the date is known. For example, if only the month and year is known, use YYYY-MM.

      Input examples:
    • Year: YYYY (“1791” for the year 1791)
    • Year and month: YYYY-MM (“1791-01” for January 1791)
    • Complete date: YYYY-MM-DD (“1791-01-10” for January 10, 1791
    • For a range of dates, enter the dates in accordance with the DCMI Period encoding scheme, separating them with a space, hyphen, space, as in “1791 - 1812"

Source

  • Mandatory (if applicable)
  • e.g., Source: From Soil Survey of Fairfield County, South Carolina. By M. Farl Carr, F.S. Welsh, G.A. Crabb, Risden T. Allen, and W.C. Byers. Located in the Map Library.
    • Enter each Source in one field, separated by a semicolon and one space
    • Use for free-text account of the source of the original item
    • Include publisher of original item here, plus ISBN or any other original necessary information

Subject

  • Mandatory (if applicable)
  • e.g., Subject.LCSH: Centennial Jubilee Singers. African Americans -- West Virginia. African Americans -- Music. Harper's Ferry ( W.Va.) -- Social life and customs.
    • Use controlled vocabularies- LCSH & AAT, or local when necessary. Labels should be “Subject.LCSH,” “Subject.AAT,” or others as appropriate
    • Use to describe what the content of the resource is about or what it is, expressed by headings, phrases, names, or other terms for significant people, places, and events, etc. A classification code also may be assigned. Keywords can also be used as an alternative option
    • Enter all Subjects in one field, separating each by a semicolon and one space

Description

  • Not Mandatory
  • e.g., Description : 1 art original: pen and ink; ALS Edward Marsh to Isaac Rosenberg , April 12, 1915, on verso; 12.7 x 20.4 cm.

    • Enter each Description in one field, separated by a semicolon and one space
    • Use this field for free-text account of the intellectual content of the original item, and physical description of original item. Can be quoted from item itself, or composed by metadata creator
    • Is searchable, so when inputting, think of audience and terminology they would likely use
    • Use both Description.Abstract and Description.TableOfContents, where applicable (Abstract is composed by metadata creator, but TableOfContents is found on item)
    • If applicable, use Description for information such as item dimensions (in centimeters), material of original item (e.g., canvas), and material used on the original item (e.g., paint, watercolor, pencil, etc.

Digital Collection

  • Mandatory (if applicable)
  • e.g. , Digital Collection: USDA Historical Soil Survey Maps of South Carolina

    • Always include title of the digital collection in the Digital Collection field
    • Use refinements to specify relation, when necessary

Web Site

  • Mandatory
  • e.g., Web Site: http://www.sc.edu/library/digital/collections/rosenberg.html
    From: Isaac Rosenberg: Early Poetry and Related Documents from the Joseph Cohen Collection of World War I Literature collection at Rare Books and Special Collections, Thomas Cooper Library, University of South Carolina

    • Each record will have only one Website
    • This should be the URL to the web site to the collection mentioned Relation field

Contributing Institution

  • Mandatory (if applicable)
  • e.g.,Contributing Institution: Beaufort County Public Library

    • Includes information on institutions or administrative units that contributed to the creation, management, description, and/or dissemination of the digital resource. For example, one institution may physically hold the original resource, another may perform the digital imaging, and another may create metadata
    • Most information on a collection level will most likely be included in creator, contributor, publisher, relation fields
    • Use established headings for institution name, available via the Library of Congress Authority File: http://authorities.loc.gov

Rights

  • Mandatory
  • e.g., Rights: Digital image copyright 2005, The University of South Carolina. All rights reserved. For more information contact The South Caroliniana Library, USC, Columbia, SC 29208

    • Each record will have only one Rights Management
    • Every library or department uses their own unique wording

Coverage (Temporal or Spatial)

  • Not Mandatory
  • e.g., Coverage.Temporal: 96 B.C.E

    • Use Coverage.Spatial for latitude/longitude coordinates and scale, when given, for collections consisting of cartographic materials
    • Coverage.Spatial: 394916N0771325W ( Note : Latitude/Longitude for Gettysburg National Military Park)
    • Use Coverage.Temporal for time period covered by the intellectual content of the original item (not the publication date), but use only for date and time-based events when the time element is critical for identification (e.g., a photograph), but there is no appropriate LCSH or AAT term
    • For Coverage.Temporal, use W3C-DTF date(s) or free-text term(s); if more than one time element is appropriate, put all entries in one text string, separated by a semicolon and space

SC County

  • Mandatory
  • e.g., SC County: Richland County (S.C.)

    • If relevant, supply South Carolina County information to reflect the geographical content of the material
    • Use established headings for SC County name, available via the Library of Congress Authority File: http://authorities.loc.gov

Language

  • Mandatory (if applicable)
  • e.g., Language: English; Latin

    • Enter the Language(s) in one field, separated by a semi-colon and space
    • Spell out the language, e.g. Spanish. Do not use the ISO 639-2 language codes for Language as suggested by the CDP guidelines
    • List the most prominent language first

Digitization Specifications

  • Mandatory (if applicable)
  • e.g., Digitization Specifications: 300ppi, 24-bit depth color, Epson Expression 10000xl PHOTO flatbed scanner with Silverfast scanning software, Archival Master file is a TIFF

    • When the information is available, include: bit depth, resolution, scanner hardware and software used, and archival master file type (i.e.: TIFF)

Date Digital

  • Mandatory
  • e.g., Date Digital: 2006-06

    • Each record will only have one Date Digital
    • Use for the date the original item was scanned, or the date the digital item was imported onto server
    • If necessary, consult the digital publisher for the date
    • Follow ISO 8601 standard of YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY-MM or YYYY

      Input guidelines :
    • Year: YYYY (“1897” for the year 1897)
    • Year and month: YYYY-MM (“1897-07” for July 1897)
    • Complete date: YYYY-MM-DD (“1897-07-16” for July 16, 1897)
    • For a range of dates, enter the dates in accordance with the DCMI Period encoding scheme, separating them with a “space, hyphen, space,” as in “1910 - 1920”

Type

  • Mandatory
  • e.g., Type: Still Image

    • Each record will only have one Type
    • Follow DCMI Type Vocabulary

      Examples include:
      Still Image, Moving Image, Sound, Text

Format

  • Mandatory
  • e.g., Format: image/jpeg
    • Each record will only have one Format
    • Consolidate IMT (Internet Media Type) and subtype into one text string
    • Add file size and content extent when applicable
      • For example: image/jpeg (2 MB) for a digital photograph, or
        video/mpeg (10 GB; 34 min., 20 sec.) for digital video
    • Combine IMT Type and Subtype into one term
      • For example: image/jpeg or video/quicktime

Media Type

  • Mandatory
  • e.g., Media Type: Newspapers

    • Used to more accurately describe and qualify the type of material in the collection
    • The following entries for "Media Type" are strongly encouraged:
      • Audio
      • Books
      • Film
      • Images
      • Maps
      • Manuscripts
      • Newspapers
      • Objects
      • Pamphlets
      • Sheet Music

Resource Identifier

  • Mandatory
  • e.g., Identifier: stfp013

    • Each record will have only one Resource Identifier
    • Use local file name for Resource Identifier

Note

  • Not Mandatory
  • e.g., Note: Als from Edwin Marsh to Isaac Rosenberg dated April 12, 1915 on reverse. Sketch of the arrest of John Rodker. Rosenberg was one of only a few who knew where Rodker was hiding.

    • Enter entire Note in one field
    • Use for any additional pertinent information about the digital or original object that does not fit into the Description field

Bibliographic Citation (or Preferred Citation)

  • Not Mandatory
  • e.g., Rutherford, William Drayton. “To Sallie Fair Rutherford.” 04 August 1864. William Drayton Rutherford Papers. USC South Caroliniana Lib., Columbia, SC. <http://www.sc.edu/library/digital/collections/rutherford.html> (Note:MLA Style Manual citation)

    • Enter each Bibliographic Citation in one field, separated by a semicolon and one space

Acknowledgements

The South Carolina Digital Library wishes to extend its most sincere gratitude to the members of the PASCAL Metadata Working Group for the time and effort they have volunteered in creating these guidelines:

Metadata Working Group:
Douglas King, Chair - University of South Carolina
Lisa Bodenheimer - Clemson University
Cori Dulmage - Greenville County Library
Dr. Ruth Hodges - South Carolina State University
Dr. Jinmook Kim - USC School of Library and Information Science
Martha Stackel - College of Charleston
Christopher Vinson - South Carolina Digital Library and PASCAL

This project also would have not been possible without the leadership of the Co-Chairs of the PASCAL Digital Collections Committee, Kate Boyd (USC) and Jim Cross (Clemson), as well as the efforts and support of the Partnership Among South Carolina Academic Libraries (PASCAL).