For what its worth, I'm attaching how we are handling journals with METS
at Brown.  Attached is a copy of a journal record (rhythm_run.xml) and a
linked issue record (rhythm_issue.xml).  These records were jointly
developed with the staff of the Modernist Journals Project
(www.modjourn.org) at Brown University.

patrick

-----Original Message-----
From: Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Scott Yeadon
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2007 2:19 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [METS] Packaging Journals with METS


Hi Jerome,

The METS packages we're working with could contain just a single issue 
or an entire journal, depending on size. Should we come across a large 
enough issue we could support individual articles, but at this stage 
that hasn't been necessary. But yes, splitting up larger packages is 
also a good idea.

Thanks for the info, using individual dmdSec elements make more sense to

me as well.

Scott.
> From:    Jerome McDonough <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Packaging Journals with METS
>
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> If it was me, I would actually try to avoid having a single METS
> record contain that many objects
> and subobjects.  Harvard did some experimentation with using the MOA2

> standard for encoding journal
> runs, and found that the time involved in processing the resulting  
> extremely large XML files was a serious
> performance problem.  The <mptr> element was added to MOA2 (and  
> carried over into METS) to allow
> those with things like journal runs (which can be neatly decomposed  
> into separate, hierarchically organized
> units) to break the various subunits up into separate MOA2 / METS  
> files to speed processing and make it
> easier to extract/process a particular subcomponent from the
hierarchy.
>
> So, you might have a METS record for the journal, with a MODS record
> for the journal, with <mptr>
> elements referencing separate METS records for each volume (with an  
> appropriate volume level MODS
> record), with <mptr> elements referencing METS records for each issue

> (with appropriate MODS records),
> with <mptr> elements referencing METS records for articles....  You  
> get the idea.
>
> As a practical matter, though, if you're going to have  multiple
> descriptive metadata records in a single
> METS file, it's better to put each one in its own dmdSec.  If you're  
> going to be making links between portions
> of a structural map and/or fileSec and individual descriptive  
> metadata records, you need to put each of
> those descriptive metadata records in their own dmdSec, so they've  
> each got a separate ID attribute value
> you can reference from DMDID attributes in the structmap/filesec.
>
> On May 7, 2007, at 5:59 PM, Scott Yeadon wrote:
>
>   
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have a question on marking up a journal issue or an entire
>> journal in
>> METS. If for example I was using MODS for descriptive metadata to  
>> describe
>> the journal is it more correct to have the entire journal's MODS  
>> metadata
>> within a single dmdSec (i.e. covering all discrete objects which  
>> make up the
>> journal), or to have dmdSec containers for each of the discrete  
>> objects
>> (e.g. the journal, issues, sections, articles, etc).
>>
>> In the situation where a single dmdSec held all MODS, the structure 
>> reflected in the structMap would be (redundantly) replicated within
>> the MODS
>> metadata (using the part and relatedItem MODS elements). It would  
>> also mean
>> DMDIDs from within the structMap and fileSec sub-elements would be  
>> linked to
>> IDs within the MODS metadata which seems not be very package-oriented
>> (surely better to link to package-level elements rather than  
>> payload elements?).
>>
>> The description of the dmdSec element within the METS docs appears to

>> support both ways (which makes sense given the docs aren't content 
>> sensitive), so I just thought I'd get the opinions of some experts
>> before
>> progressing. Thanks!
>>
>> Scott.
>>     
>
> Asst. Prof. Jerome McDonough
> Graduate School of Library & Information Science
> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
> 501 E. Daniel Street, MC-493
> Champaign, IL 61820-6211
> (217) 244-5916
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>