Return to the SDD starting page.
First published 2002-10-29, last update: 2002-10-29.
TDWG working group: Structure of Descriptive Data (SDD)
The SDD standard provides for authorship or creation metadata at two primary places:
The project definition defines the following required data elements:
The following meta data are optional:
The Dublin Core meta data standard (version 1.1) (reference: http://dublincore.org/documents/1999/07/02/dces/) was considered inadequate to be used directly. Dublin Core defines a lowest common denominator approach which can be adequate to querying and retrieving read-only data, but which is inadequate for the data management considered necessary for descriptive data. Among other problems, it is impossible in Dublin Core to distinguish between authors and editors, or to distinguish between creation and revision dates. Therefore, Dublin Core elements where not used directly, but have the following mapping between SDD project definition and Dublin Core is provided:
| SDD element | Dublin Core 1.1 element | Dublin Core definition/comment |
| Title | Title | A name given to the resource. |
| Creator: Author(s) and Editor(s) | Creator | An entity primarily responsible for making the content of the resource. |
| TaxonomicCoverage | Subject | The topic of the content of the resource. Typically, a Subject will be expressed as keywords, key phrases or classification codes that describe a topic of the resource. |
| Description | Description | An account of the content of the resource. Description may include but is not limited to: an abstract, table of contents, reference to a graphical representation of content or a free-text account of the content. |
| ?? What would be the publisher of an digital dataset? Do we ever need publishers in the future? | Publisher | An entity responsible for making the resource available. Examples of a Publisher include a person, an organisation, or a service. Typically, the name of a Publisher should be used to indicate the entity. |
| Creator: Contributor(s) | Contributor | An entity responsible for making contributions to the content of the resource. Examples of a Contributor include a person, an organisation, or a service. |
| FirstPublicationDate, LastRevisionDate | Date | A date associated with an event in the life cycle of the resource. Typically, Date will be associated with the creation or availability of the resource. |
| ? a fixed value from DCT1 ? | Resource Type | 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 working draft list of Dublin Core Types, DCT1, Type Vocabulary, http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-type-vocabulary/). To describe the physical or digital manifestation of the resource, use the FORMAT element. |
| not applicable? | Format | The physical or digital manifestation of the resource. Typically, Format may include the media-type or dimensions of the resource. Format may be used to determine the software, hardware or other equipment needed to display or operate the resource. Examples of dimensions include size and duration. Recommended best practice is to select a value from a controlled vocabulary (for example, the list of Internet Media Types [MIME] defining computer media formats). |
| ? | Identifier | An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context. Recommended best practice is to identify the resource by means of a string or number conforming to a formal identification system. Example formal identification systems include the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) (including the Uniform Resource Locator (URL)), the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and the International Standard Book Number (ISBN). |
| PrimarySource | Source | A Reference to a resource from which the present resource is derived. The present resource may be derived from the Source resource in whole or in part. Recommended best practice is to reference the resource by means of a string or number conforming to a formal identification system. |
| (a list of all languages defined in those audience definitions actually used in the transmitted data in the SDD document) | Language | A language of the intellectual content of the resource. Recommended best practice for the values of the Language element is defined by RFC 1766 [RFC1766] which includes a two-letter Language Code (taken from the ISO 639 standard [ISO639]), followed optionally, by a two-letter Country Code (taken from the ISO 3166 standard [ISO3166]). For example, 'en' for English, 'fr' for French, or 'en-uk' for English used in the United Kingdom. |
| ? | Relation | A reference to a related resource. Recommended best practice is to reference the resource by means of a string or number conforming to a formal identification system. |
| GeographicalCoverage, GeographicalStdCoverage | Coverage | The extent or scope of the content of the resource. Coverage will typically include spatial location (a place name or geographic coordinates), temporal period (a period label, date, or date range) or jurisdiction (such as a named administrative entity). Recommended best practice is to select a value from a controlled vocabulary (for example, the Thesaurus of Geographic Names [TGN]) and that, where appropriate, named places or time periods be used in preference to numeric identifiers such as sets of coordinates or date ranges. |
| Rights: CopyrightStatement and UsageConditions | Rights Management | Information about rights held in and over the resource. Typically, a Rights element will contain a rights management statement for the resource, or reference a service providing such information. Rights information often encompasses Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), Copyright, and various Property Rights. If the Rights element is absent, no assumptions can be made about the status of these and other rights with respect to the resource. |
| Acknowledgement | ? | Not supported in Dublin Core? |
Initially we attempted to model these metadata according to the Dublin Core meta data elements. However, most elements are not applicable, as is documented in the table below:
| Dublin Core 1.1 element | SDD element |
| Title | (not applicable to description fragments or a set of resource connections) |
| Creator | Creator: Author(s) and Editor(s) |
| Subject | not applicable |
| Description | A full description is not appropriate for the fragmentary data to which the meta data apply. However, an element InternalNotes is currently provided. |
| Publisher | not applicable |
| Contributor | ??? |
| Date | CreationDate, LastUpdateDate |
| Resource Type | not applicable |
| Format | not applicable |
| Identifier | not applicable |
| PrimarySource | Source |
| Language | not applicable |
| Relation | not applicable |
| Coverage | not applicable |
| Rights Management | Rights: CopyrightStatement and UsageConditions. Request GH: I am uncertain whether such detailed rights annotation facility is appropriate here, at the fragment level! |
Please send your criticism or suggestions to the SDD mailing list or to the author.
Gregor Hagedorn; Vers. 1; 29. October 2002