Common Element Set

What is it?

The issue of interoperability is one that is becoming acute as more information and data is being stored in various areas of the University. Even if it is technically possible to search across these disparate sources what are the elements that could be mapped to each other so that the searcher is at least searching similar elements.

To aid in the 'findablity' of resources/objects/stuff each database should have at least a common set of elements whose meaning is uniform even though the actual label may vary.

The element set is:

• Title / Object name [Name by which the resource is formally known]
• Creator / Author [The name/s of the person/s or organisation/s primarily responsible for the intellectual content of the resource]
• Date [A date associated with the creation and/or availability of the resource.] The standard to be used for the date is 8601. The most current 'version' is 8601-2004. The actual standard needs to be purchased through ISO but there is a W3C note that gives the main outline. The ISO page also has an outline. Either of these will be enough in the majority of cases.
• Subject [Words or phrases used to describe the intellectual content of the resource usually taken from a controlled list of some kind i.e. vocabulary, thesaurus, ontology, taxonomy?]
• Keywords [Words or phrases used to describe the topic and/or intellectual content of the resource and used by search engines to discover the resource]
• Identifier [A string or number used to uniquely identify the resource that provides an unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context]
• Language [The primary language of the intellectual content of the resource]
  The standard for the language code is ISO639-3

This work is still in progress. This page will be updated in line with progress. For further information please contact the Manager, Information Planning and Architecture.