| Metadata profiles | Subject and language authorities | Place name authorities | Other local authorities |
Metadata profiles
Metadata refers to the standards used to describe the content, technical characteristics, as well as access and rights management of a media object.
A Metadata Subcommittee was formed through the Remote Indigenous Archiving Reference Group and determined set of descriptors that:
- Are most appropriate to the needs of remote Indigenous archive organisations.
- Align with wider standards for describing/cataloguing media objects so as to provide the foundation for sharing data sets between organisations.
The metadata is based on extended Dublin Core.
A metadata specification has been recommended for:
- Moving image
- Still image
- Audio
For further information contact Daniel Featherstone, Manager IRCA. Email [email protected]; phone 08 8952 6465.
Subject and language authorities
The AIATSIS Language and Subject Headings Thesauri are recommended as the “authorities” for subject and language metadata fields. Authorities are available at http://www1.aiatsis.gov.au/thesaurus/subject/subject.asp for subject thesaurus and at http://www1.aiatsis.gov.au/thesaurus/language/language.asp for languages.
Note: In relation to languages only the text naming is recommended; remote AV collections may choose to use the other codings as needed.
Place name authorities
The Australian Gazeteer is recommended as the authority for place names. http://www.ga.gov.au/place-names/ , with dual naming for language names and European names.
At the local Archive level archive organisations are recommended to develop and maintain a register of local language place names mapped to European place names. The AIATSIS Place Name Thesaurus is a useful supportl for spelling support for language place names. See http://www1.aiatsis.gov.au/thesaurus/placename/placename.asp
Other local authorities
Local collections are strongly encouraged to develop their own authorities (that is lists of agreed names or values and agreed spellings) for:
- Restricted content (sorry, sensitive, restricted, open, etc)
- Skin names and culturally relevant naming/categories relevant to access protocols.
- Place names in language (as noted above)