Directory of Research and Expertise

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Research Summary and Profile

Research interests:

Digital resources, Digitisation, Library

Summary of research interests and expertise:

Metadata in theory and practice

My research covers the theory and practice of metadata, particularly in digital libraries or for digital collections. One major strand of my research has been the development and application of XML schemas which fulfil the same functions as linked open data: in the past I have applied these in such diverse areas as archival description, parliamentary metadata and environmental science. I am also interested in the history of metadata, its ideological component and the ways in which it may be used to break down barriers between libraries, archives and museums.

Digital humanities

I am interested in several strands within the digital humanities, including (of course) any aspect that examines the role of metadata with it. My research here has included text encoding (for instance, to facilitate the textual analysis of large corpora), the role of metadata in ‘digital ecosystems’, and its role in integrating diverse archival collections.

Digital curation and librarianship

I am interested in all aspects of digital curation and particularly the role of the digital librarian within it. Areas of interest include the creation of digital collections, digital preservation (especially the place of metadata within this), the role of the librarian as a digital asset manager, and the contributions that digital curation can make to international librarianship. I am particularly interested in examining the continuities between traditional librarianship and its digital counterpart as well as the inevitable differences between the two.

Digital iconography

I am interested in the application of digital humanities techniques and methodologies to the discipline of iconography. In particular, my research examines how Panovsky’s second-level of iconography, the identification of iconographic subjects, may be achieved within the digital sphere by the application of machine-readable ontologies or other techniques that employ interoperable metadata to record the components that go in to making an iconographic identification.

Languages:

	Spoken	Written
French	Intermediate	Intermediate
German	Intermediate	Intermediate
Italian	Intermediate	Intermediate
Latin	-	Good

Publication Details

Related publications/articles:

Date	Details
22-Nov-2021	Metadata in the Digital Library: Building an Integrated Strategy with XML Monographs The range of metadata needed to run a digital library and preserve its collections in the long term is much more extensive and complicated than anything in its traditional counterpart. It includes the same 'descriptive' information which guides users to the resources they require but must supplement this with comprehensive 'administrative' metadata: this encompasses technical details of the files that make up its collections, the documentation of complex intellectual property rights and the extensive set needed to support its preservation in the long-term. To accommodate all of this requires the use of multiple metadata standards, all of which have to be brought together into a single integrated whole. Metadata in the Digital Library is a complete guide to building a digital library metadata strategy from scratch, using established metadata standards bound together by the markup language XML. The book introduces the reader to the theory of metadata and shows how it can be applied in practice. It lays out the basic principles that should underlie any metadata strategy, including its relation to such fundamentals as the digital curation lifecycle, and demonstrates how they should be put into effect. It introduces the XML language and the key standards for each type of metadata, including Dublin Core and MODS for descriptive metadata and PREMIS for its administrative and preservation counterpart. Finally, the book shows how these can all be integrated using the packaging standard METS. Two case studies from the Warburg Institute in London show how the strategy can be implemented in a working environment. The strategy laid out in this book will ensure that a digital library's metadata will support all of its operations, be fully interoperable with others and enable its long-term preservation. It assumes no prior knowledge of metadata, XML or any of the standards that it covers. It provides both an introduction to best practices in digital library metadata and a manual for their practical implementation.
01-Aug-2020	The Warburg Iconographic Database: from relational tables to interoperable metadata. Chapters A discussion of the metadata strategy for the Warburg's Iconographic Database as it moves from mySql tables to more interoperable, XML-based formats. A chapter in Schuster, K. and Dunn, S. eds., 2020. Routledge International Handbook of Research Methods in Digital Humanities. Routledge.
01-Jul-2020	Intermediary XML schemas: constraint, templating and interoperability in complex environments Articles This article introduces the methodology of intermediary schemas for complex metadata environments. Metadata in instances conforming to these is not generally intended for dissemination but must usually be transformed by XSLT transformations to generate instances conforming to the referent schemas to which they mediate. The methodology is designed to enhance the interoperability of complex metadata within XML architectures. This methodology incorporates three subsidiary methods: these are project-specific schemas which represent constrained mediators to over-complex or over-flexible referents (Method 1), templates or conceptual maps from which instances may be generated (Method 2) and serialised maps of instances conforming to their referent schemas (Method 3). The three methods are detailed and their applications to current research in digital ecosystems, archival description and digital asset management and preservation are examined. A possible synthesis of the three is also proposed in order to enable the methodology to operate within a single schema, the Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS).
01-Sep-2019	Archives, museums and libraries: breaking the metadata silos Conference papers IFLA World Library and Information Congress 2019
01-Jun-2019	Towards an ontology-based iconography Articles Digital Scholarship in the Humanities
01-Oct-2018	Using structured text corpora in Parliamentary Metadata Language for the analysis of legislative proceedings Articles  This article examines the potential of employing structured texts, encoded in the Parliamentary Metadata Language XML schema, for the machine-readable analysis of substantial corpora of legislative proceedings. It demonstrates the potential of using PML corpora for combining the results of sentiment analysis with contextual metadata to establish and visualise patterns of divergent attitudes towards a topic such as immigration as they correlate with such features as party affiliation or geographic location. This is readily achieved using such simple techniques as XSLT transformations or XQUERY searches.
18-Feb-2018	Ascending the pyramid: librarians, metadata and the curation of culture Conference papers  Proceedings of the IEEE 5th International Symposium on Emerging Trends and Technologies in Libraries and Information Services. 2018 Bennett University, Noida: IEEE UP Section (India). pp. 294–296.
22-Aug-2016	Metadata: shaping knowledge from antiquity to the Semantic Web Monographs This book offers a comprehensive guide to the world of metadata, from its origins in the ancient cities of the Middle East, to the Semantic Web of today. The author takes us on a journey through the centuries-old history of metadata up to the modern world of crowdsourcing and Google, showing how metadata works and what it is made of. The author explores how it has been used ideologically and how it can never be objective. He argues how central it is to human cultures and the way they develop.
30-Jun-2015	METS as an ‘intermediary’ schema for a digital library of complex scientific multimedia Articles The use of the Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS) schema as a mechanism for delivering a digital library of complex scientific multimedia is examined as an alternative to the Fedora Content Model (FCM). Using METS as an 'intermediary' schema, where it functions as a template which is populated with content metadata on-the-fly using an XSLT transformation, it is possible to replicate the flexibility of structure and granularity of FCM while avoiding its complexity and often substantial demands on developers.
24-Oct-2014	Intermediary schemas and semantic linkages: an integrated architecture for complex digital archives Articles This article attempts to assess the feasibility of a Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS) based XML approach to integrated metadata for a complex digital archive. In particular, it aims to test whether such an approach can emulate two key features of RDF–based metadata architectures: the flexible reusability of components and the encoding of semantic linkages. In doing so, it seeks to establish whether this approach can be a viable alternative to ontology–based models for digital archive metadata.
01-Aug-2014	An XML schema for enhancing the semantic interoperability of archival description Articles This article outlines a new experimental schema, which allows collection descriptions to be encoded in a more interoperable manner than is possible using the EAD (Encoded Archival Description) standards. Devised for the Collaborative European Digital Archive Architecture Project, it complements the descriptive elements of a collection-level record with more semantically precise metadata components.
15-Aug-2013	Parliamentary Metadata Language: an XML approach to integrated metadata for legislative proceedings Articles The article discusses a new XML schema, Parliamentary Metadata Language (PML), which has been devised to integrate diversely located records of legislative proceedings. The schema is designed to integrate with preexisting standards such as MODS and METS within an XML environment. It is discussed in the context of the LIPARM (Linking Parliamentary Records through Metadata) project within which it was devised: the project has also constructed a series of controlled vocabularies, encoded in MADS, to allow semantic integration across collections, and has designed a Web-based interface to PML records created from two substantial collections.
17-Oct-2011	Intermediary schemas for complex XML applications: an example from research information management Articles The complexity and flexibility of some XML schemas can make their implementation difficult in working environments. This is particularly true of CERIF, a standard for the interchange of research management information, which consists of 192 interlinked XML schemas. This article examines a possible approach of using 'intermediary' XML schemas, and associated XSLT stylesheets, to make such applications easier to employ. It specifically examines the use of an intermediary schema, CERIF4REF, which was designed to allow UK Higher Education institutions to submit data for a national periodic research assessment exercise in CERIF. The wider applicability of this methodology, particularly in relation to the METS standard, is also discussed.

Publications available on SAS-space:

Date	Details
	LIPARM: Linking Parliamentary Records through Metadata NonPeerReviewed The LIPARM project linked the parliamentary record together for the first time by creating a unified metadata scheme for all of its key elements. People, bills, acts, items of business, debates, divisions and sessions were described by the scheme and linked together across resources which were spread out and isolated. For the first time, it was possible to trace a given MP’s entire voting record or to find every speech they had made. It was possible to follow the passage of every bill or act, and every contribution to the debates that accompanied it. Both the historical and the contemporary record of parliamentary proceedings became accessible in this way for the first time.
Aug-2017	Using structured text corpora in Parliamentary Metadata Language for the analysis of legislative proceedings PeerReviewed This article examines the potential of employing structured texts, encoded in the Parliamentary Metadata Language XML schema, for the machine-readable analysis of substantial corpora of legislative proceedings. It demonstrates the potential of using PML corpora for combining the results of sentiment analysis with contextual metadata to establish and visualise patterns of divergent attitudes towards a topic such as immigration as they correlate with such features as party affiliation or geographic location. This is readily achieved using such simple techniques as XSLT transformations or XQUERY searches.
Feb-2018	Ascending the pyramid: librarians, metadata and the curation of culture PeerReviewed
Feb-2019	Towards an ontology-based iconography PeerReviewed This article describes work undertaken at the Warburg Institute in London into the definition of machine-readable ontologies for the identification of iconographic subjects. Iconography, a descriptive discipline concerned with the identification of the content or subject of an image, is a core component of the wider discipline of iconology, the study of the meanings of images in their cultural or historical contexts. The research detailed here attempts to define the core of an ontology for the indicators of an iconographic subject that would be employed by an art historian in making an identification: these are encoded in OWL, the Web Ontology Language. The article demonstrates how such an ontology may be queried in XML format using simple XQUERY queries. Future directions for this research are discussed, including its possible integration with image recognition technologies to facilitate more automated approaches to iconographic identification.
Apr-2019	Archives, museums and libraries: breaking the metadata silos PeerReviewed To overcome impediments to access for the rich collections held in cultural heritage institutions, some alignment of metadata standards and a consequent enhancement of interoperability are essential. The three sectors in which much of our cultural heritage is to be found, libraries, archives and museums, each employ different approaches to metadata which make interoperability between them, and consequently between the constituencies and communities within which they were defined, difficult to achieve. This paper introduces a metadata strategy devised for the Photographic Collection of the Warburg Institute, London, which aims to break down some of the barriers between these approaches. This strategy employs established XML-based metadata schemas from the digital library community as the basis for establishing interoperable metadata. It uses CIDOC-CRM (the core standard from the museum sector) as a conceptual backbone for metadata structures but then serializes the data model produced into standards from the library sector such as MODS for descriptive metadata and METS for packaging. The resulting metadata can also interoperate to some extent with EAD, the established standard in the archives sector, by utilising existing crosswalks. This strategy allows the metadata requirements of all three sectors to be accommodated in interoperable, easily-managed schemes. It should allow an important step to be taken towards moving metadata practices within archives, museums and libraries in the same direction.
Jul-2020	Intermediary XML schemas: constraint, templating and interoperability in complex environments PeerReviewed This article introduces the methodology of intermediary schemas for complex metadata environments. Metadata in instances conforming to these is not generally intended for dissemination but must usually be transformed by XSLT transformations to generate instances conforming to the referent schemas to which they mediate. The methodology is designed to enhance the interoperability of complex metadata within XML architectures. This methodology incorporates three subsidiary methods: these are project-specific schemas which represent constrained mediators to over-complex or over-flexible referents (Method 1), templates or conceptual maps from which instances may be generated (Method 2) and serialized maps of instances conforming to their referent schemas (Method 3). The three methods are detailed and their applications to current research in digital ecosystems, archival description and digital asset management and preservation are examined. A possible synthesis of the three is also proposed in order to enable the methodology to operate within a single schema, the Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS).
Mar-2021	THE WARBURG ICONOGRAPHIC DATABASE: From relational tables to interoperable metadata PeerReviewed

Research Projects & Supervisions

Research projects:

Details
Measuring Impact under CERIF (MICE) This project examined   the potential for encoding systematic and structured information on research impact in the context of the CERIF schema. The project built previous work on impact by producing a comprehensive set of indicators which were then mapped both to the CERIF standard and the CERIF4REF schema created by the previous Readiness for REF (R4R) project.
Greek manuscripts in Renaissance Venice: the library of Guillaume Pellicier and its contribution to Europe’s intellectual heritage The spread of Greek texts into Western Europe was decisive for the cultural and intellectual innovations of the European Renaissance. Yet the precise practices, relationships, and goals involved in acquiring and organising these works, including the changes brought in the copy of manuscripts by the arrival of printing, remain significantly understudied. They can be best understood by detailed examination of specific collections and collectors. This project focuses on the library of Guillaume Pellicier (ca. 1490-1567), a French bishop and ambassador of François Ier to Venice. It will produce a complete description of the collection, composed of Greek manuscripts (held for the most part at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin) copied during his stay in Venice, and a detailed study of the transmission of Greek culture in sixteenth-century Venice.  This project also aims to offer the general public a better understanding of cultural life in Venice and of the cultural policy of King François Ier, particularly in regard to Greek culture, using the British Museum Cidoc-CRM platform. It is led by Raphaële Mouren (Rome, London, PI) and Rosa Maria Piccione (Turin, Co-I). Richard Gartner (London) supports the project. An international advisory board will provide additional expertise. It is supported, both financially and in-kind, by the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.
Linking the Parliamentary Record through Metadata (LIPARM) The LIPARM project aimed the parliamentary record together for the first time by creating a unified metadata scheme for all of its key elements. People, bills, acts, items of business, debates, divisions and sessions are all described by the scheme and are linked together across resources which are othersie spread out and isolated/

Current PhD topics supervised:

Dates

Details

From: 01-Sep-2019 Until:

How does the curatorial control of galleries, libraries, archives and museums data and the creation of metadata limits the representation and connection of communities? This research will examine the ways in which the curatorial control of GLAM data and the creation of metadata has limited the representation and connection of communities, enforcing an inherent bias in our cultural heritage. It will investigate using crowdsourcing as an engagement tool increase the diversity of voices surrounding cultural heritage object interpretation to create a more inclusive narrative.

Available for doctoral supervision: Yes

Professional Affiliations

Professional affiliations:

Name	Activity
METS Editorial Board	Editorial board for metadata standard 'Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard'

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