November 20, 1997

Moen's Summary of Attributes/Elements Crosswalk Discussion
at the St. Louis Working Group Meeting

The following is a summary from my notes about discussion and decisions related to the Attributes and Elements for the CIMI Attribute Set and GRS Abstract Record Structure that occurred at the St. Louis meeting. This is intended to feed Kody's work on the crosswalk, definitions, etc. Once that is finished, Moen will revise the Attribute Set and Abstract Record Structure as appropriate. The first task is to make sure the attributes/elements are nailed down with semantics, and the next step is to complete the crosswalk from the attributes/elements to the other community standards.

[Note: I came in late to this meeting, and I'm not sure what I missed.]

General Notes:

• Need clear semantics for each use attribute/element

• General design principle is that the attributes can provide for detailed/specific searches while also being able to handle more general "bucket" searches.

• Need consistent labeling of the attributes and elements. In Z39.50 Use Attributes usually are separate words as in Subject Description, but as elements in the schema, the convention is: subjectDescription, namely, pull the words together, with lowercase at beginning and uppercase for each word. For the time being, let's follow the convention for the elements in naming both Use Attributes and Elements: subjectDescription

1. cimiObjectname and cimiObjectTitle

• Drop the "cimi" qualifier from these

• objectName will have the semantics of "type classification" and can use either informal or controlled vocabulary terms

• objectTitle will be the "title" of the work

• RESULT: both objectName and objectTitle will be retained as Use Attributes and Elements

2. cimiBibliographicTitle

• For semantic interoperability this needs to be changed to simply Title

• Semantics for this should note that this is used to mean bibliographic title rather than the title of a piece of art

• Bib-1 title will be used for this.

• Open question -- do we need a bibliographicTitle as an element in schema?

• RESULT: Use Bib-1 Use Attribute Title; Unclear about need for bibliographicTitle element

3. bibliography

• Semantics that we are after here have to do with describing related textual information

• Define new element called relatedTextualReferences as Use attribute and element

• RESULT: Delete bibliography; Insert new relatedTextualReferences as Use Attribute and Element

4. creator

• Need a creatorName Use Attribute
• Need new element in schema: creatorInfo where all the creator elements can fall under
• For creatorDates, look for guidance in the Dublin Core work on Date
• My notes say to remove creatorOccupation and Occupation -- does this align with Kody's notes?
• RESULT: Define new Use Attribute creatorName; Add new element creatorInfo as structured element

5. currentLocation, Repository

• For clarity, the following Use Attributes and Elements will be defined:
  • repositoryName
  • repositoryPlace
  • owner
• As Elements, these will be Not Repeatable.
• RESULT: Remove CurrentLocation and Repository; Define as Use Attributes and Elements: respositoryName, repositoryPlace; owner

6. museumObjectID, ObjectID

• Retain simply as objectID
• RESULT: Rename as objectID as Use Attribute and Element

7. materialMedium, Material

• Use materialMedium as label for both
• RESULT: Names of the Use attribute and Element will be materialMedium

8. placeOfOrigin, Place of Creation

• Use placeOfOrigin as label for both
• RESULT: Names of the USe attribute and Element will be placeOfOrigin

9. techniqueProcess, Process/Technique

• Use processTechnique as label for both
• RESULT: Names of the Use attribute and Element will be processTechnique

10. dimensions

• There is no use attribute for this element
• Need to get into the documentation the reason why we are not defining a use attribute for this -- point out that it is intentional and not an oversight.

11. Provenance

• No problem on this. Retain
• RESULT: Provenance will be retained as both use attribute and element

12. StylePeriod

NOTE: I don't have anything recorded for this one

13. relatedObjects

• There is no use attribute for this element.
• Need to get into documentation the guidance and explanation of expressing relationships
• Sort of like relatedTextualReferences, but in this case, the element carries info about related non-textual objects

14. quantity

NOTE: I don't have anything recorded for this one

15. award

• Keep as both attribute and element
• RESULT: Award will be retained as both use attribute and element

16. collection

• No problem with this.

17. event

• According to my notes, this gets removed since it is part of Association?

18. Association

• This becomes context information about the object.
• Remove Use attribute Context (2021)
• Need to add two other types of context: historical, archaeological? Not sure from my notes
• Association will have the following elements:
  • associationName, which can be personal or corporate name but not name of object
  • associationPlace
  • associationEvent
  • associationActivity
  • associationDescription
• Remove associationTitle, and associationStylePeriod
• Question: Are these only going to be elements with no corresponding use attributes? My notes seem to indicate that we are not supporting searching on these concepts. But we will support a search on Association as an Use attribute.

19. Content

• The Content element will be redefined with two other use attributes and elements
• content will have the semantics of describing the representational component of the object, basically it's a generic description of the object and what the object "contains."
• subject will have the semantics of the iconographic, symbolic, meaning of the object.

This represents the best take I have on my notes from the meeting. Hopefully this supplements what Kody recorded and has developed since the meeting.