My colleague, David Loy, and I have brainstormed on this issue of what
additions MODS needs to carry the full details of citation information. We
came to the conclusion that we need a "subDocumentType" that has a field
for the detailed statement of the sub-document level. The reasoning for
this is that there are all kinds of different levels for all kinds of
different documents, so it would be best to allow for as much flexibility
as possible. We ended up with what you see below (and, no this isn't
properly coded, so just think of it as a logical explanation) (also, more
text and explanation below the examples):
*************** subDocumentType ******************
<subDocumentType>
<subDocDetail type="[type]" number="[number]" caption="[caption]"
order="[order]" title="[title]/>
<subDocExtent type="[type]" value="[value]" />
<text></text>
</subDocumentType>
Where:
subDocument
type=part|volume|issue|chapter
number=CDATA
caption=CDATA
order=NUMERIC
title=CDATA
text=CDATA
subDocExtent
type=pagination|total_pages
value=CDATA
*************************************************
Examples:
Journal article with details
relatedItem value=host
title=Journal of the American Medical Association
subDocumentType
subDocDetail=
type=volume
caption=v.
number=5
order=1
subDocDetail=
type=issue
caption=n.
number=44
order=2
subDocExtent=
type=pagination
value=34-56
Journal article without details
relatedItem value=host
title=Journal of Irreproducible Results
subDocumentType
text=v.3, March, 2002
subDocExtent=
type=pagination
value=1,3-7
Chapter:
relatedItem value=host
title=Collected essays
author=Smith, John
subDocumentType
subDocDetail=
type=chapter
number=10
title=Why I Write
subDocExtent=
type=pagination
value=100-135
text="Chapter 10: Why I Write"
**********************
Some things that need explanation:
1) Subdocument types should be expanded. This is what we came up with as
obvious ones.
2) The "order"is there because there are situations when it is important to
state the hierarchical order of the numbered elements, i.e.
part/volume/number. It is optional, however, because the metadata you are
working with often doesn't express any order of the elements.
3) I thought of adding in the date here, but there are some odd
interactions with the main portion of the bibliographic record -- I am
assuming that the date element (date of publication, date issued, etc.) in
the main portion relates to item being described, therefore it doesn't need
to be repeated here. On the other hand, when the details are not parsed,
date information might be included.
4) Almost ditto for pagination -- is the pagination an attribute of the
subdocument or of the document being described in the bibliographic record?
I placed it here in the subdocument because it tends to be coupled with the
enumeration in most citations.
5) The "text" data element (it might need another name) is a way to carry
to unparsed statement from the original metadata record when a
transformation is done from a citation format to MODS. It may be useful for
display even if it is successfully parsed into detailed elements, and it
may carry data that doesn't get into the subdocument data elements (such as
the date in the middle example).
6) "subDocExtent" is another data element that can be extended to include
other types -- including non-textual types.
OK, have at it. This is just one possible solution; I will be disappointed
if there aren't any competing ones.
kc
----------------------------------------------
Karen Coyle [log in to unmask]
http://www.kcoyle.net
----------------------------------------------
