The Meta Data Table

Meta data Table

I proposed this table for the following reasons¹:

• To provide an easily defined and found manner of including Dublin Core meta data in the specific resource;

• To enable construction of a taxonomy of resources;

• To provide one word/short phrase descriptions of the resource;

• As the starting point for a tool that creates resource sets;

This table is not part of the official specification; Inclusion of this table is optional;

All of this data can be included in the Description field of the Details Table; No currently available e Sword resources contain this table; A tool for users to read this table will be distributed in the future; Both Text2DAO and TheWORDpad Editor enable one to edit/read this table, if it is present in the resource.

In the following database, fields are rows, not columns².

Field Name	Contents	What	Description	Type
ID	1	Record Number	Internal Tracking number	Autonumber
meta data	Language	Display What the meta data represents	What the meta data content describes	Text
Content	English	Display what the content is.	The meta data content	Text
Taxonomy	ISO 639-3	The taxonomy that is used	The classification system used for the “content” field.	Text

Table 4: Meta data Table

By definition, record zero is empty, and records one through fifteen correspond to the Dublin Core/ISO 15836 meta data elements:

• Title
• Creator
• Subject
• Description
• Publisher
• Contributor
• Date
• Type
• Format
• Identifier
• Source
• Language
• Relation
• Coverage
• Rights

By definition, record sixteen through twenty-two contain the following meta data elements:

• Writing System
• Redistribution
• Font
• Associates
• URL
• Format Shifting
• File name

By definition, one record contains one item. If an element has two, or more attributes, create a new record for each attribute of the element. For example, if both Library of Congress and Dewey Decimal numbers are used for the subject field, then there are two records for the element “Subject”. One record has “Library of Congress Catalog Number” in the syntax field. One record has “Dewey Decimal Number” in the syntax field.

Some information included in the Meta Data Table, is duplicated in other parts of the resource. The Description Table and Copyright Table. The theory is that just this table can be printed out, or extracted from the resource, to be used as a way of organizing resources, or comparing two or more resources.

Table Example

The following is an example of what a table would look like.

In the following example, fields are rows, not columns³.

0
1	Title	Table Example
2	Creator	Jonathon Blake
3	Subject	E-Sword documentation	Folksonomy
4	Description	A proposed table for e Sword resources
5	Publisher	Jonathon Blake
6	Contributor	Jonathon Blake
7	Date	2008-06-27	ISO 8601
8	Type	Document
9	Format	Text
10	Identifier	Blake 20080628a
11	Source	Modified from Dublin Core Meta Data Elements
12	Language	English	English language names of languages
13	Relation	None
14	Coverage	World wide
15	Rights	CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0
16	Writing System	Latin	English language names of writing systems
17	Redistribution	True	Boolean
18	Font	Tahoma
19	Associates	None	None
20	URL	Http://www.esnips.com/web/eSwordFAQs
21	Format Shifting	True	Boolean
22	File Name	meta_data.res

Table 5: Meta Data Table Example

The elements

The following is a synopsis⁴ of what the terms mean/are to be used for

Title

This is the name of the resource.

Creator

This is who created the original document. It can be either an individual, or an organization.

Subject

This is a short description of what the resource is about. There is no default taxonomy⁵. Potential taxonomies⁶ are:

• Dewey Decimal Classification⁷;
• Library of Congress Classification⁸;
• Colon Classification⁹;
• Universal Decimal Classification¹⁰;
• Bliss Bibliographic Classification¹¹;
• Cutter Expansive System¹²;

Description

This is an abstract of the material.

Publisher

This is the individual or organization responsible for distribution of the resource.

Contributor

This is the individuals or organizations who created the original resource, and/or are authorized to make changes to the resource.

Date

This is the date that the original electronic source was created. The default taxonomy is ISO 8601-2004.

Type

The type of resource that this is. The proposed options¹³ are:

• Apologetics;
• Bible;
• Bible Reading Plan;
• Bookmarks;
• Breviary;
• Chronological Bible;
• Commentary;
• Concordance;
• Cross-references;
• Daily Office;
• Devotional;
• Dictionary;
• Doctrine;
• Exegesis;
• Fiction;
• General Book;
• Halacha Renditioning;
• Handbook;
• Harmony;
• Hermeneutics;
• Homoletics;
• Horn Books;
• Hymnal;
• Lectionary;
• Lexicon;
• Map;
• Markup;
• Missals;
• Pericopes;
• Prayer Requests;
• Psalter;
• Sermon Illustrations;
• Sermon Outline;
• Study Notes;
• Time Lines;
• Topical Bible;
• Verse lists;
• Verse Memorization Sets;
• Virtual tours;

Format

“e Sword resource”¹⁴

Identifier

This is a unique alphanumerical string that identifies the resource. For resources that e Sword displays tabs for, use the abbreviation of the resource. For components that don't use tabs, use the author name, and the date the original document was publicly released.

Source

This is what the source of the original material is. For Bibles, it should provide the underlying manuscripts. For material scraped from the Internet, the source URL should be provided.

Language

This is the language that the resource uses. The preferred taxonomy is ISO 636-3.

Relation

Other e-Sword resources that are to be used with this resource. For example, Sermon Outline resources consist of two parts: A Dictionary, and a Commentary.

Coverage

Geographic location in which the resource can be distributed. Suggested taxonomies are:

• ISO 3166-1: Country codes;
• ISO 3166-2: Country Subdivision codes;
• ISO 3166-3: Formerly used codes;
• ISO 3166-88: GOST 7.67 :
• ISO 6709: Geographical Point Locations;
• STANAG 1059;

Rights

This is the license, or the legal rights that the resource is distributed under.

Writing System

This is the writing system that is used. The preferred taxonomy is that of ISO 15924.

Redistribution

This indicates whether or not one may redistribute the resource.

• “True” indicates it may be redistributed;
• “False” indicates that it may not be redistributed;
• Other content indicates that it may not be redistributed;

Font

This is the suggested font¹⁵ for the resource.

Associates

This is a file that is not an e-Sword usable¹⁶ resource, but is considered to be part of the resource. For example, images that are linked to commentary, or midi files that are part of a hymnal. The content field specifies the name of the file. The syntax field specifies the type of file:

• Audio;
• Video;
• Image;
• Web page;
• PDF File;
• ODF Document

URL

This is the URL that the resource is distributed from

Format Shifting

This indicates whether or not one format shifting is permissiable

• “True” indicates it may be format shifted;
• “False” indicates that it may not be format shifted;

Other content indicates that it may not be format shifted;

File name

This is the file name that the uncompressed resource is distributed.

This specification allows for the creation of private tags, with the proviso that they do not replace the formally defined tags.

1“The cost of meta data is in its application, but the value of meta data is in its use.” unattributed quote at http://tagsonomy.com/index.php/ian-davis-on-why-tagging-is-expensive/

2There are too many fields to have them all displayed in one row.

3There are too many fields to have them all displayed in one row.

4The complete specification can be found at http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-terms/#elements-description.

5It is not unlikely that a Folksonomy will develop.

6I have been unable to find a taxonomy developed specifically for Christian resources.

7http://www.oclc.org/dewey/resources/summaries/deweysummaries.pdf is a synopsis.

8More about this system can be found at http://www.loc.gov/aba/cataloging/classification/.

9Reference books on this system are available from http://www.essessreference.com/servlet/esDispInfo?offset=0&text1=colon+classification&searchtype=Keywords&x=0&y=0

10Information about this system is available at http://www.udcc.org/mrf.htm.

11Information about this system is available at http://www.blissclassification.org.uk/.

12http://digital.library.unt.edu/permalink/meta-dc-1048:1 is the book Charles Cutter published.

13This list is not complete.

14The only acceptable option here is “e Sword Resource”. This describes/defines what medium the material uses.

15Whilst fonts are not a usual descriptor of a resource, it is included due to specific font requirements of some e Sword resources.

16This descriptor was added, because several resources are distributed with accompanying audio, or image files. This tag enables one to determine which additional files belong to the resource.