A practical suggestion for the application of a Type vocabulary

Summary:

Best practice is to use the MACAR list in conjunction with the DCMI type list of terms.

A practical suggestion for the application of a Type vocabulary

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MACAR has produced a recommendation for a "resource types" controlled vocabulary to be used in academic and research repositories.

It might be useful for MACAR also to make it clear to those interested in using this list that using it does not preclude them from using other "type" vocabularies as well.

Indeed, DCMI recommends that multiple "type" vocabularies be used when a resource consists of multiple mixed types then multiple "type" terms be used. In particular, for the sake of interoperability, these multiple types should include a standard DCMI Type.

The DC Usage Guide says of the DCMI Type term:

4.4. Type

Label: Resource Type

Element Description: The nature or genre of the content of the resource. Type includes terms describing general categories, functions, genres, or aggregation levels for content. Recommended best practice is to select a value from a controlled vocabulary (for example, the DCMIType vocabulary ). To describe the physical or digital manifestation of the resource, use the FORMAT element.

Guidelines for content creation:

If the resource is composed of multiple mixed types then multiple or repeated Type elements should be used to describe the main components.

Because different communities or domains are expected to use a variety of type vocabularies, best practice to ensure interoperability is to include at least one general type term from the DCMIType vocabulary in addition to the domain specific type term(s), in separate Type element iterations.

Examples:

Type="Image"
Type="Sound"
Type="Text"
Type="simulation"

Note: The first three values are taken from the DCMI Type Vocabulary, and follow the capitalization conventions for that vocabulary. The last value is a term from an unspecified source.

The item described is an Electronic art exhibition catalog:

Type="Image"
Type="Text"
Type="Exhibition catalog"

Note: The first two values are taken from the DCMI Type Vocabulary, and follow the capitalization conventions for that vocabulary. The last value is a term from an unspecified source.

The item described is a Multimedia educational program with interactive assignments:

Type="Image"
Type="Text"
Type="Software"
Type="InteractiveResource"

Note: All values in this example are taken from the DCMI Type Vocabulary, and follow the capitalization conventions for that vocabulary.

UK's Scholarly Works Application Profile takes care of this OAI interoperability requirement by declaring all of its scholarly text vocabulary terms to be subtypes of the DCMI Type, 'Text'.

So when one uses the MACAR type "cartographic material", it is also a good idea (even "best practice") to additionally use the DCMI Type term "image" or "still image". Similarly the MACAR type "data holding" should be accompanied by the DCMI type "dataset".

The reason for including the DCMI vocabulary alongside the MACAR one is to maximize interoperability. Wherever the OAI protocol is found, there the "simple" DC terms will be understood and processed.