Glossary
Have you noticed we've changed?
We have updated the navigation structure of ands.org.au. Much of the content remains unchanged however it should now be easier to find. Any questions, ask your Cient Liasion Officer or email web@ands.org.au.
MME Highly Commended
Congratulations to the team at the Museum Metadata Exchange and the Powerhouse Museum. More information
International Author ID systems should connect
The Knowledge Exchange, organiser of the Digital Author Identifiers Summit in London last March, has now produced a report and recommendations. More information
| ANDS Quick Links | |||||||
|
| Actionable identifier - An identifier expressed as a URL that resolves to a web page when selected |
| Activity - Something occurring over time that generates one or more outputs. Examples are projects or education courses. |
| Additional metadata - See Qualifier |
| ANDS - Australian National Data Service |
| ARCS - Australian Research Collaboration Service |
| Attribute - A feature or aspect of an object or an entity. As an example, name is an attribute of a project (project name), or a person (researcher name), or a publication (article title) or a dataset (dataset name). |
| Classification scheme - see Vocabulary |
| Collection - Aggregation of physical or digital objects treated as a unit for business purposes (such as management or discovery) |
| Conditional - In this context, an element which is required under some conditions. For example, if spatial information is provided, its type must also be provided (without knowing the type, the spatial information could not be interpreted). |
| Content provider - In this context, a party that shares metadata about activities, collections, parties or services with ANDS for inclusion in the ANDS Collections Registry and Research Data Australia. See also Data Provider. |
| Data Provider (OAI-PMH) - Data Providers administer systems that support the OAI-PMH as a means of exposing metadata. See also Content provider. |
| Data Source - A data store or metadata store server that provides metadata using OAI-PMH harvesting protocol. |
| Data Source Administrator - Role responsible for liaison between a Data Source and the ANDS Collections Registry, particularly in relation to the metadata feed. |
| Datasets - Structured data files in any format, collected together with the documentation that explains their production or use. Documentation can include codebooks, technical reports, methodology, data dictionaries, data structure descriptions, questionnaires or any information needed to understand and use the data. Generally a dataset is un-usable by a second party unless both the dataset and its documentation are available. (informed by JISC-UK definition). In other schemas datasets may be regarded as a resource type or format. In RIF-CS they are regarded as a collection type, since they should include both datasets and documentation. |
| Dublin Core - A metadata element set for resource description (ISO 15836) |
| Dublin Core Collection Description Application Profile (DC CDAP) - An extension of the Dublin Core metadata standard that is used to describe a collection or a catalogue or index, i.e. an aggregation of metadata that describes a collection. |
| Element - Basic building block of the information stored in the ANDS Collections Registry. It contains values describing research domain objects and entities. |
| Enumerated data - see Vocabulary |
| Harvest point - Internet-accessible location from which metadata files are retrieved by a harvester application. |
| Harvesting - In the OAI context, harvesting refers specifically to the gathering together of metadata from a number of distributed repositories into a combined data store. OAI tutorial |
| Harvester - A harvester is a client application that issues OAI-PMH requests. A harvester is operated by a service provider as a means of collecting metadata from repositories. (Open Archives Protocol ) The ANDS Harvester is a software utility that supports the processing and routing of content and metadata from a source data provider to a target application, in this case the ANDS Collections Registry. |
| Identifier - An identifier is any label used to name some thing uniquely (whether online or offline). |
| IESR - The Information Environment Service Registry (IESR) has been developed in the UK to provide a registry of information about electronic resources that are of value to teachers, researchers and learners. |
| JISC - Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) is an independent advisory body in the UK that works with further and higher education by providing strategic guidance, advice and opportunities to use ICT to support learning, teaching, research and administration. |
| Mandatory - In this context, a RIF-CS component that is required. |
| Mapping - In this context, the process of determining the semantic equivalence of components of different information structures. This is done for the purpose of transforming metadata content from another information structure into the RIF-CS Schema for interchange purposes. |
| Metadata - In this context, descriptions of activities, collections, parties and services that are of value to Australian research, for the purpose of discovery, evaluation, access or re-use. |
| OAI-PMH - Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting |
| Obligation - Describes whether a metadata element is required (mandatory), required under certain conditions, or optional. Elements that are optional may be recommended. |
| Optional - In this context, a data element that is not required. |
| ORCA Registry - ORCA is the underlying PostgreSQL database that stores the ANDS Collections Registry and supports the Research Data Australia portal. |
| Party - A person or group performing a role in relation to the business of a specific community or domain. |
| Permissible data value - see Vocabulary |
| Persistent identifier - A persistent identifier (PID) is any label used to name some thing uniquely (whether online or offline), that is guaranteed to be managed and kept up to date over a defined time period. A long-lived, globally unique number or code allocated to an object or resource. |
| Property - See Attribute |
| Qualifier - A qualifying attribute is information that constrains or limits metadata in some way. Qualifiers in the ANDS Collections Registry context include dateFrom and dateTo (a date range) and xml:lang (language). |
| Quality assurance - In this context, processes designed to ensure that metadata provided to Research Data Australia is fit for the purposes of discovery, determination of value, access and re-use of the collections it describes. |
| Registry - A collection of descriptions or metadata about physical or digital objects. |
| Registry object - A set of metadata describing an activity, collection, party or service within the ANDS Collections Registry. |
| Repository (ISO 2146) - A collection of physical or digital objects compiled for information and documentation purposes and/or for storage and safekeeping. A container or facility. |
| Repository (OAI-PMH) - A repository is a network accessible server that can process the six OAI-PMH requests. A repository is managed by a data provider to expose metadata to harvesters. (Open Archives Protocol) |
| Research Data Australia - A set of web pages managed by ANDS that provides descriptions of research collections and related entities. Research Data Australia draws its information from the ANDS Collections Registry database. Not to be confused with the National Library of Australia's descriptive cataloguing standard, Resource Description and Access. Use Research Data Australia, not RDA. |
| RIF-CS schema - Registry Interchange Format - Collections and Services Schema. A data interchange format, based on the ISO 2146 standard, that supports the electronic exchange of collection and service descriptions. It organises information about collections, parties, activities and services into the format required by the ANDS Collections Registry. |
| Schema - Describes the structure and content of XML documents. |
| Service - A system that provides one or more functions of value to the end user. Includes both human and machine services. |
| Service Provider (OAI-PMH) - Service Providers use metadata harvested via the OAI-PMH as a basis for building value-added services. (Open Archives Protocol) |
| Set (OAI-PMH) - A set is an optional construct for grouping items for the purpose of selective harvesting. (Open Archives Protocol) |
| Vocabulary - In this context, lists of terms available for selecting as metadata values for inclusion in the ANDS Collections Registry. |
| XACML - XACML is eXtensible Access Control Markup Language, a declarative access control policy language. |
| XML - Extensible Markup Language |
| Date | Change history |
| April 2010 | Consultation draft |
| 26 October 2010 | Expanded glossary |
Please send any feedback on this page to guides@ands.org.au
