 |
 |
Now my response to Jenn's message about geospatial in MODS. There needs to be extensibility for the cartographics element and also any of its subelements to be able to use any XML, such as that in geonames. I would like to see probably the same granularity in MODS coordinates as we have in MARC 034. We are engaged in a project here at LC where we will be populating authority records for geographic places with coordinates in field 034, so the granularity will be the same as MARC, i.e. separate subfields for west, east, north south. Currently MODS just outputs coordinates as a string of course. The use case is that we are going to be doing some metadata remediation-- for now on some of our American Memory collections. We are going to be generating coordinates for items that have a place associated and using the authority record (once we have the 034s in the records) to match geographic place and extract the coordinates. We are using MODS for remediated records, which will be converted from their source format (which varies) into MODS. So it would really be helpful if we don't have to convert the data that we will have in the MARC authority record into a string but can retain the granularity in coding. We could also make a case for parsing out scale as it is in the bibliographic 034: http://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/bd034.html And I am not sure whether any of the data in the other subfields in the authority or bibliographic 034 (e.g. declination, ascension, g-ring, etc.) might also be helpful to have available in MODS. As we all know, people are really into geographic approaches to data these days, which justifies to me giving more granularity in MODS. We plan to use this data to develop interfaces to the resources, like clicking on parts of a map to get, for example, civil war photographs of a certain town. Rebecca Rebecca S. Guenther Senior Networking and Standards Specialist Network Development and MARC Standards Office Library of Congress 101 Independence Ave. SE Washington, DC 20540-4402 (202) 707-5092 (voice) (202) 707-0115 (FAX) [log in to unmask] >>> "Riley, Jenn" <[log in to unmask]> 7/21/2009 3:14 PM >>> Dear MODS/MADS Community, This is a reminder the MODS/MADS Editorial Committee is looking for use cases for geospatial information in MODS. Please send any use cases you have to the MODS list - we'd like MODS to evolve to handle this type of information in a way that's useful to you. Thanks, Jenn Riley Chair, MODS/MADS Editorial Committee > -----Original Message----- > From: Metadata Object Description Schema List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On > Behalf Of Riley, Jenn > Sent: Monday, June 29, 2009 9:19 PM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: [MODS] geospatial information in MODS - call for use cases > > Dear MODS/MADS community, > > In considering changes for future versions of MODS, the MODS/MADS > Editorial Committee is starting to think about how to better handle > geospatial information. Detailed geospatial information in the form of > coordinates, etc. is becoming more and more common and can promote many > innovative user interactions with resources. Currently MODS has poor > support for this information. > > The committee would like to bring together use cases for supporting > geospatial access to resources from MODS and/or MADS implementations. > We are interested both in use cases that you already have in your > MODS/MADS implementation and that any local geospatial experts you have > access to can provide, to help us inform how MODS and/or MADS should > evolve to better handle this information. It should be noted this > discussion came to the Editorial Committee from the more specific > geospatial elements (latitude/longitude, > equinox/epoch) in RDA, although we want to look beyond RDA for guidance > in this decision. > > So far, we have identified the following use cases for geospatial data: > > - To allow resources with a geospatial component (interpreted widely) > to be plotted on an interactive map-based interface > - Interactively overlaying different maps, including aerial > photographs, digitized historic maps, and current maps in a GIS > environment > - To index coordinate data about the geographic coverage of a resource > for retrieval purposes > - To index coordinate data about the geographic origin of a resource > for retrieval purposes > > What others can you provide? > > Are there more specific use cases both for geospatial *coverage* (what > a resource is about or represents) and geospatial *origin* (where a > resource is from, for example, a soil sample)? This distinction seems > important but it would be useful to understand what is done differently > in each case. > > There is some question as to whether the appropriate place for this > information is MODS or MADS - thoughts on this issue? Should MODS/MADS > be looking to embedding or referencing other standards for this > information, and, if so, which and where? What is the best balance > between functionality (and potentially complexity) and ease of > creation/maintenance/use? > > We look forward to hearing discussion on this issue - it's a complex > but important one that will benefit from community contribution. > > Jenn Riley, Chair, MODS/MADS Editorial Committee > > ======================== > Jenn Riley > Metadata Librarian > Digital Library Program > Indiana University - Bloomington > Wells Library W501 > (812) 856-5759 > www.dlib.indiana.edu > > Inquiring Librarian blog: www.inquiringlibrarian.blogspot.com