The metadata schema registry (MSR) for the DART work package DA3 is intended to provide a centralised repository of metadata schemas and ontologies. The MSR will act as an authorative information source and promote the sharing and reuse of the schemas. The aim of the MSR is to enable users to create new schemas, submit schemas to the registry and search and browse the registry. The characteristics required of the DART MSR include:
Registry components:
(Initial thoughts on types of metadata that might be required. Possible sources for metadata terms include: IEMSR, ISO/IEC 11179, SchemaWeb, Dublin Core.)
| Metadata Field | Description | Example |
| Title | The title of the schema | Crystallography Schema (CIF) |
| Description | A (short) human readable description of the schema contents and purpose | This XML Schema describes the syntax of CIF files for describing crystallographic structures. |
| Identifier | A uri of the schema for the registry | http://dart.edu.au/dmsr/cif/200606012/ |
| Format | Currently either XML Schema or RDF Schema | XML Schema |
| Administrator | The organisation or authority who created and manages the schema. Also record address, phone, email and website details for this organisation. | Name: ACME Co; Address: PO Box 1111, Brisbane 4001; Phone: (07) 3333 4444; Website: http://www.acme.com; email: admin@acme.com |
| Contact | A nominated contact within the administrating organisation and their contact details | Name: John Smith; email: jsmith@acme.com |
| Author (alt) | The name and contact details of the schema's creator/administrator where a schema is submitted by an independent individual | Name: John Smith, Organisation: ITEE, UQ; Phone: (07) 3365 4444; email: jsmith@itee.uq.edu.au |
| Publisher | The organisation which makes the schema available for use | The DART Metadata Schema Registry |
| Date.Created | The date the schema was created | 2006-03-06 |
| Date.Submitted | The date the schema was submitted to the registry | 2006-03-15 |
| Date.Updated | The last date any changes were made to the schema or its metadata where no version change was made | 2006-05-05 |
| Version | Version number for the schema | 1.3 |
| Replaces/ IsReplacedBy | Identifier of schema which this schema replaces or is replaced by | Replaces: http://dart.edu.au/dmsr/20050208/ |
| Coverage | The subject, area or domain to which the schema applies (value is possibly from a controlled vocabulary) | CIF (crystallography) files |
| ExampleInstance | A url to an example instance of the schema | http://dart.edu.au/dmsr/examples/cif/20060612.xml |
| ReferenceDocument | One or more urls to descriptive reference documents explaining or providing human-readable definitions of the fields in the schema (in txt, html or pdf format) | http://www.acme.com/cif/schema-description.pdf |
The IEMSR online demo provides the following metadata fields -- Description; Format; Date created; Date modified; Publisher -- when browsing the schemas.
SchemaWeb provides the following metadata fields -- Name; Description; Namespace; Location; Website; Contact Name; Contact Email; Local Version -- when browsing the ontologies/schemas.
METeOR (Aust. Institute of Health and Welfare) provides the following metadata fields -- Metadata item type; Synonymous names; METeOR identifier; Registration status; Definition; Classification structure; Guide for use; Steward; Origin; Reference Documents; Revision Status; Value domains based on this classificiation scheme; Dataset specification type; Submitting organisation -- when browsing classification schemes or data set specifications.
These are the tasks that need to be supported by the MSR and the participants in each one:
A metadata schema registry for the climatology field has been developed and implemented. It contains a dozen schemas in both XML and RDF schema formats. These schemas are used to structure data records from a variety of specific domains related to the study of climatology including water quality testing; meteorology reports; satellite imagery of vegetation density and distribution etc. The registry is available on the web and is used by researchers and administrators from organisations such as: CSIRO; University of Queensland; the Queensland Department for Environment; the Environmental Protection Agency; the CRC for Greenhouse Accounting etc.
A team working for the CRC for Greenhouse Accounting has developed a schema for recording the level of air-born pollutants in an atmospheric sample. They wish to submit this schema, which is in XML Schema format, to the climatology metadata registry for use by other researchers in the field.
Possible Process:
A researcher from the University of Queensland wishes to make their research data from water testing at the Indooroopilly stretch of the Brisbane River available to other researchers in the climatology field. They need to find the appropriate schema for recording and structuring water analysis results (e.g. water temperature, oxygen levels, salt levels, pollutants etc.)
Possible Process:
The researcher from scenario 2 finds the schema for water testing results but it doesn't have enough detail on recording the level of pollutants. Further searches discover the air pollutant schema registered by the research team from scenario 1. The researcher is able to develop an updated version of the water quality schema which includes fields for recording pollutant levels based on the structure used for air pollutants. The researcher registers this new schema as an updated, alternative version of the original water quality schema.
Possible Process: