New Project Metadata

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Creating Metadata for Discovery

Providing good, detailed information about your file is an effective way to make sure your file can be discovered in search. It's also useful for you as a steward of your file to record what's currently known about the file so that information doesn't get lost. But what information is important to record?

Required Elements

Only two elements are required in the DRS:

Title

A good title is a brief descriptive statement that is used to identify the resource and its content.

Example: Adult swimmers practice lifegaurding techniques in a natatorium pool

Keyword

Keywords are terms used to identify the content of the resource. Only one keyword is required, but three to five keywords are recommended. To encourage consistency in keyword selection, we recommend you create a list of commonly used keywords for your own collection.

Example: PONS test, body language, psychological testing, testing methods

Recommended Elements

Creator names

Creators are typically persons or entities credited with the creation of the resource being described, or contributed to its creation in some way. The creator's name should always be included, if it is known. A file can have more than one creator, and the creator can be a person or an entity, like Northeastern University.

Example of a personal name: Cauchon, Brad

Example of a entity name (also known as a corporate creator): Marlan Studio of Photography

Date

A file's date can refer to the date the file was originally created or published.

Example: This photo of a sand sculpture was taken in July 1985, though the exact date is not known.

Description/Abstract

The description or abstract should contain a succinct description of a file's content, including any valuable information that could not be included in the title.

Example of a thorough description: "François Nicolas Martinet (1725-1804), a French artist living during the late Enlightenment Era, blends science with art in his numerous works..."

Example of a typical description: "This video recording contains the full-length Profile of Nonverbal Sensitivity (PONS) Test..."

Example of a typical abstract: "We report a technique to characterize adhesion of monolayered/multilayered graphene sheets on silicon wafer...."

Example of a brief description: "Picture of the Rip Van Winkle Trail in Catskill, NY."

Other Possible Elements

Notes

Notes can be used to add additional information about a file.

Example of a provenance note: Provenance: Haidt, Marie

Example of a comments note: Comments: Author's manuscript; originally published in Proc. of the Fifteenth Annual Pittsburgh Conference on Modeling and Simulations, Pittsburgh, PA, April 1974.

Publication Information

If the file was published or distributed, the name and location of the publisher, as well as the publication date, can be included in the record.

Example: Publisher: Boston, Massachusetts : Northeastern University Press, 2007

Rights Statements

Rights statements can contain information about how the file can be used or reproduced, any licensing issues, or contact information to request full access to the file.

Example: Use and reproduction: This open-access digitized edition was produced by the Digital Publishing Program at the Northeastern University Libraries.

Subjects from a controlled vocabulary

Rather than using simple keywords, you can opt to select terms from a controlled vocabulary. There are a few controlled vocabularies that cover a lot of types of material, including the Library of Congress subject headings and Getty's Art and Architecture Thesaurus.

Example of Library of Congress Subject Headings: Canoes and canoeing, Children -- Massachusetts -- Boston -- Societies and clubs, Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston

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DRS		https://repository.library.northeastern.edu
Resources		http://dsg.neu.edu/resources/drs
Contact		Library-Repository-Team[@]neu.edu