SPEC Kit 329: Managing Born-Digital Special Collections and Archival Materials · 169
University of Michigan
BHL Web Archives: Methodology for the Acquisition of Content
http://bentley.umich.edu/dchome/webarchives/BHL_WebArchives_Methodology.pdf
August 2, 2011 8
Metadata
The WAS curatorial interface permits archivists to enter information related to the
“Creator,” “Publisher,” “Subjects,” and “Geographic coverage” of each site (see Figure
6).
Figure 6
Although WAS intended these metadata fields to mirror elements in the Dublin Core
Metadata Set, the Bentley Historical Library needed to establish local definitions and
conventions. After extensive discussions among archivists, the following practices
were adopted:
• Creator denotes the individual or organization that generated or supplied the
website’s intellectual content (and not merely the web designer who created
the page).
• Publisher refers to the entity ultimately responsible for the production and
presentation of content. Although the publisher may often be identical to the
creator, the Regents of the University of Michigan are recognized as the
collective publisher for all sites affiliated with the university. Similar
situations may arise with other archived websites.
• Subjects express Library of Congress subject authorities that correspond to
MARC21 6XX fields. Due to the lack of formatting in this field (and the
indeterminate status of their use within WAS), the Bentley Historical Library
does not include indicators and subfield codes but instead simply enters the
primary and secondary descriptors and separates them with double
hyphens.
• Geographic coverage identifies where the activities described in the site took
place. Archivists again utilized MARC21 conventions so that the main
geographic entry is followed by the subdivision but did not (for reasons
stated above) include the field codes themselves.
University of Michigan
BHL Web Archives: Methodology for the Acquisition of Content
http://bentley.umich.edu/dchome/webarchives/BHL_WebArchives_Methodology.pdf
August 2, 2011 8
Metadata
The WAS curatorial interface permits archivists to enter information related to the
“Creator,” “Publisher,” “Subjects,” and “Geographic coverage” of each site (see Figure
6).
Figure 6
Although WAS intended these metadata fields to mirror elements in the Dublin Core
Metadata Set, the Bentley Historical Library needed to establish local definitions and
conventions. After extensive discussions among archivists, the following practices
were adopted:
• Creator denotes the individual or organization that generated or supplied the
website’s intellectual content (and not merely the web designer who created
the page).
• Publisher refers to the entity ultimately responsible for the production and
presentation of content. Although the publisher may often be identical to the
creator, the Regents of the University of Michigan are recognized as the
collective publisher for all sites affiliated with the university. Similar
situations may arise with other archived websites.
• Subjects express Library of Congress subject authorities that correspond to
MARC21 6XX fields. Due to the lack of formatting in this field (and the
indeterminate status of their use within WAS), the Bentley Historical Library
does not include indicators and subfield codes but instead simply enters the
primary and secondary descriptors and separates them with double
hyphens.
• Geographic coverage identifies where the activities described in the site took
place. Archivists again utilized MARC21 conventions so that the main
geographic entry is followed by the subdivision but did not (for reasons
stated above) include the field codes themselves.
