Required Metadata Fields for CARLI Digital Collections

A list of metadata fields required for all items in all collections in CARLI Digital Collections

For more information about how these five required metadata fields fit into the CARLI metadata best practices guidelines, consult the document "Guidelines for the Creation of Digital Collections: Best Practices for Descriptive Metadata."

For instructions on adding a metadata field to a collection, please see the document Adding and Populating a Metadata Field in a Preexisting CONTENTdm Collection.

Title Field

This field must be present for all items in a collection. The Title field must contain information that is specifically descriptive to each item, i.e. to name that item. The Title field may not be a file name or other non-descriptive text, (e.g. "0010203.jpg" or "Image 1").

In the CONTENTdm Web Administration module’s Field Properties section, the Title metadata field should be:

• DC map: Mapped to the "Title" Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) Metadata Term
• Searchable: Yes
• Hidden: No
• Required: Yes

Collection Field

This field must contain the full name of the collection to which it belongs, including the institution name in parentheses after the specific collection name, e.g.,

The Jack Bradley Photojournalism Collection (Bradley University)

In the CONTENTdm Web Administration module’s Field Properties section, the Collection metadata field should be:

• DC map: Mapped to the "Relation - Is Part Of" DCMI Metadata Term
• Seachable: Yes
• Hidden: No
• Required: Yes

Language Field

For any text item or item with a spoken element, such as audio or video, language information must be included in the metadata. 

Such collections must contain a field for language designation, and include the three-letter language code for each item. ISO 639-2 is the required controlled vocabulary to use for language designations. Language codes in ISO 639-2

Please be sure to use the three-letter ISO 639-2 codes and not the two-letter 639-1 codes.

There are two options for including language designation for items:

Display Three-Letter Language Code Only

In this option use the Language metadata field to display only the three-letter language code.  End users will see only the three-letter designation (e.g. "eng" or "ita") displayed when they view items in the collection.

In the CONTENTdm Web Administration module's Field Properties section, the Language metadata field must be:

• DC Map: Mapped to the "Language" DCMI Metadata Term
• Searchable: Yes
• Hidden: No, unless using the optional language information formatting as described below

Display Full Wording of Language Designation

If you prefer to have end users see the "pretty" version of the language designation versus the three-letter code (e.g., "English" instead of "eng"), you have the option of hiding the field with the three-letter code and using an additional field for the spelled-out word. Note that the three-letter code MUST be included in a separate field. For this option:

1. An additional field, the Language Code field, will contain the ISO 639-2 three-letter language code. In CONTENTdm Web Administration this field MUST be:
   • Field Name: Language Code Note: if you already have created a Language field with the three-letter code you may rename that field to Language Code. This must be done first, before you create the additional Language field
   • DC Map: Mapped to the "Language" DCMI Metadata Term
   • Searchable: Yes
   • Hidden: Yes

    

2. Create a field called Language or use the Language field already provided in the CARLI Dublin Core metadata template. This field will be used for the written-out language designation. In CONTENTdm Web Administration this field MUST be:
   • Field Name: "Language"
   • DC Map: Mapped to the "Language" DCMI Metadata Term
   • Searchable: Yes
   • Hidden: No

Use the Language Code field for all the three-letter ISO 639-2 codes. Use the Language field for the full lettering of the language designation.

Example: Language Code: ita
Language: Italian

Even though the Language Code field is hidden, it is still searchable and mapped to the DCMI Metadata Term "Language." This means that end users searching with the three-letter code will return results based on the hidden field, but will see the visible field when they view individual items.

Rights Field

This field should describe the intellectual property rights owner of the digital item and at minimum must provide contact information (e-mail address and/or phone number) or a URL to an external webpage that contains such information for inquiries about usage.

The Rights field may also include information on acceptable uses or cases considered fair use, for example, for educational use with attribution.

Example Rights Statements:

All rights held by ______________________. For permission to reproduce, distribute, or otherwise use this image, please contact _______________.<or alternately link to a locally maintained persistent web page with organizational contact information.

All rights held by ______________________ and affiliated organizations. For permission to reproduce, distribute, or otherwise use this image, please contact  _______________. <or alternately link to a locally maintained persistent web page with organizational contact information.>

One source for other example rights, usage, and license statements is Creative Commons.

In the CONTENTdm Web Administration module’s Field Properties section, the Rights metadata field should be:

• DC Map: Mapped to the "Rights" DCMI Metadata Term
• Searchable: Yes
• Hidden: No
• Required: Yes

Rights Field recommendations for any collection that will be harvested by DPLA

If you plan to have your collection harvested by the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), please see the following page for recommendations on how to set up your Rights Field: https://www.carli.illinois.edu/products-services/contentdm/dpla/rights.

CARLI recommends that any collections harvested by DPLA include two fields:

1. Rights Field using only a rights statement that follows the Rightsstatements.org guidelines, and
2. Contact Information field to provide contact information for your institution

Type Field

This field must contain information describing the nature or genre of the content of each item within a collection. For example, if using the DCMI Type Vocabulary, items within a collection that are images would contain a type designation of "Image." Video items would have a type designation of "MovingImage."

The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) Type Vocabulary is the MINIMUM required controlled vocabulary to use for this field. See a full list of all the terms within the DCMI Type Vocabulary.

By default, for all new collections created after Jan. 4, 2010, CARLI will turn on the DCMI Type controlled vocabulary for this field; however, other standards and their associated type vocabularies are also permissible, such as VRA Core and its Cataloging Cultural Objects guidelines. If you prefer to use a standard other than the DCMI Type Vocabulary, you may disable the DCMI Type controlled vocabulary for the field.

No matter which standard is used, in the CONTENTdm Web Administration module’s Field Properties section, the type-related metadata field(s) should be:

• DC Map: Mapped to the "Type" DCMI Metadata Term
• Searchable: Yes
• Hidden: No
• Required: Yes

CARLI Office Revised: 6/27/2017