UNIMARC and XML at the BN

Nuno FreireJosé Borbinha

Hugo Manguinhas INESC-ID

UNIMARC and XML at the BN

• Reference publication of the formats– MDR >>> HTTP://UNIMARC.INFO + PDF, ...

• Validation of records and reporting– MANGAS + IRIS + QUALICAT

• Preservation of records– REPOX – Metadata Repository

• Access and transport of records– URN.PORBASE.ORG

Reference publication of the formats

Linking to the UNIMARC Reference

Publication in the WEB

http://www.unimarc.info/bibliographic/2.3/en/100 urn:unimarc:<type>:<version>:<locale>:/100

Linking to the UNIMARC Reference Publication in the WEB

Links to the Dublin Core Metadata Registry(http://www.dublincore.org/dcregistry/)

Links to the UNIMARC Registry

(http://www.unimarc.info)

The Z39.50 PortugueseGateway

http://zzz.porbase.org

Reference publication of the formats (publication in PDF from the schema and descriptions)

Validation of records and reportingMANGAS DIAG QUALICAT

Applications of the UNIMARC schema

coded in XML

Validation of records and reporting

Validation of records and reporting

Validation of records and reporting

Validation of records and reporting

REPOX – Metadata Repositorycd REPOX Data Model

REPOX Manager

Data Collection

Record Type

Data Source Interface

Access Point

Data Serv ice

Archiv al Information Package

Preserv ation Description InformationContent Information

Data Obj ect

Digital Signature Record

0..*

0..*

0..*

1..*

1..*

1..*

1..*

REPOX – Metadata Repositorycd REPOX Deployment Model

Jav a EE Application Serv er

Data Source

REPOX Manager

File System

Web Interface Web Services Interface

Digital Signature Manager

Web Client External Serv ice

Command Line Interface

Administrator

«arti fact»XML Records

Data Source Interface

Access Points Manager

MySql DBMS

«arti fact»Record Access Point Indexes

1..*

1..*

Access and transport of

records

http://urn.porbase.org

Access to PORBASE records by identifiers

Successful usage ofMARCXML for exchanging UNIMARC records

Access and transport of records...

Demonstration:

http://urn.porbase.org

UNIMARC and XML

Hugo ManguinhasNuno Freire

José Borbinha INESC-ID

UNIMARC and XML

1. The transport of UNIMARC records in XML

2. Representations of UNIMARC • Schema coded in XML (vocabulary and constraints)• Definitions recorded in XML

3. A Metadata Registry for UNIMARC

4. Open or new issues...

The transport of UNIMARC records in XML

• MARCXML

• MarcXchange

MARCXML

• About– Simple and flexible XML Schema

• XML schema to code MARC21 records• The schema supports also UNIMARC

– Lossless conversion between UNIMARC or MARC21 and XML

• Limitations– MARC validations not enforced by the schema

• Usage– Wide usage...

MarcXchangehttp://www.bs.dk/marcxchange/

http://www.niso.org/international/SC4/n577.pdf

• About• Superset of MARCXML (every valid MARCXML file is also a valid

MarcXchange file)• ISO 2709 centric:

• Allows more than 2 indicators• Allows more than 1 subfield code length

• Defines also extensions to the ISO 2709 specifications (format and type)

• Status–”ISO/DIS 25577 Information and documentation – MarcXchange”–Sent to DIS ballot. The voting period started 2006-02-22 and

terminates on 2006-07-24.–Library of Congress has accepted to host the Maintenance Agency

for MarcXchange.

UNIMARC and XML

The UNIMARC SchemaThe formal description of UNIMARC as a family of formats, in a specific schema, coded in XML, able to accommodate the formal lexis, syntaxes and multilingual textual descriptions of any format and version, to be interpreted by both machines and humans.

A Schema for UNIMARC • Purposes

– Support to the maintenance of the formats– Automatic publication of the formats

• For human reference (HTML, PDF, etc.)• For machine processing

– Automatic validation of UNIMARC records– Promote generic interoperability and usage of

UNIMARC metadata in information systems• Requirements

– Formal ways to express the UNIMARC vocabulary and constraints

– A UNIMARC Metadata Registry (MDR)

About Schema Languages...

Generic Schema Languages

XMLSchemaRELAX-NG

Schematron

Generic Schema Languages• Advantages generic schemas

– Wide spread use...• Disadvantages generic schemas

– These languages are usually very generic (which is good) but in this case that represents a level of abstraction too low, which would impose an impracticable scenario for our specific business: to express all the richness of UNIMARC!!!

– May evolve to unexpected directions, out of our control, targeting scenarios incompatibles with our business

• Only Schematron allows the complete definition of UNIMARC vocabulary and constraints (but it is not widely used... yet...)

Requirements for a UNIMARC Schema Language

• Express all UNIMARC vocabulary and constraints– Allowing declaration of UNIMARC formats– Allowing version control

• Close to the MARC concepts– Controlled language, technology independent

• Specific identification of vocabulary and constraints– Allow the definition of a URN space for the elements

of the format (required for metadata registries)

Toward MARC centricSchema Languages...

• UNIMARC Doc Schema (BookMARC)• UNIMARC Schema (BN)

Generic Schema Languages

XMLSchemaRELAX-NG

Schematron

UNIMARCSchema

UNIMARC Doc Schema

MARC centric Schema Languages

UNIMARC Doc Schema

• Developed by BookMARC• Schema language close to the

concepts of UNIMARC format• Combines schema language

concept with descriptive information– Makes it harder to understand– Adds useless information for

validation purposes– Increases schema length

• Actual version describes only a subset of the UNIMARC vocabulary and constraints

UNIMARC Schema

• Under development at BN since early 2003...

• Schema language centric on the UNIMARC concepts

• Allows the definition of all UNIMARC vocabulary and constraints

• Enables version control• Defines a URN mechanism for

all available rules– Required for MDR (Metadata

Registries)• Currently used by BN

The UNIMARC Metadata Registry

• Purpose:– A way to publish the vocabulary...

• Requirement:– Complient with the ISO 11179

Considerations• For exchanging purposes, and from the perspective of

UNIMARC, MarcXchange is a step in the right direction, but...

• ...in order to be recognized by in the Web Architecture we need to be able to distinguish MARC formats (MARC21, UNIMARC, etc) and sub formats (Bibliographic, Authority, Holdings and Classification). This requires a declarative way to identify the specific schemas!!!

• ...for interoperability between UNIMARC and MARC21 (mappings, etc.), we need to express inheritance from a general MARC schema (a requirement to be considered also by a related initiative from the MARC21 community)

BTW, shouldn't we have after all a common MARC language schema, to be shared by UNIMARC and MARC21?

Web Architecture:- http://www.w3.org/TR/webarch/#xml-namespaces

UNIMARC and XML at the BN

• Reference publication of the formats– MDR >>> HTTP://UNIMARC.INFO + PDF, ...

• Validation of records and reporting– MANGAS + IRIS + QUALICAT

• Preservation of records– REPOX – Metadata Repository

• Access and transport of records– URN.PORBASE.ORG