Date:         Thu, 21 Feb 2002 08:55:55 -0500
Reply-To:     Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard
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Sender:       Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard
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From:         Jerome McDonough <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Re: [METS] Réf. : Re: [METS] Application
Comments: To: Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard <[log in to unmask]>
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At 11:46 AM 2/21/2002 +0100, you wrote:
>I understand METS is a good standard to diffuse data with other digital
>library.
>But it may also be use as preservation format and consultation format. It's
>confortable to use only one model for all, isn't it ?

Yes it is.

>Actually, i'm in enquiry phase. That's why i want to know if someone else
>(with
>the same preoccupation than us) use it? and for what ?
>

In addition to a transfer syntax, we're planning on two additional uses at NYU:
1. preservation format -- By using METS' ability to encode data files
within the
METS file, we can put an entire object in one big wrapper.  There are certain
technical efficiencies in doing this for extremely large objects that SDSC
noted
in their research for the National Archives and Record
Administration.  There's also
the peace of mind knowing that the whole object, metadata included, is in one
nice tidy bundle; for me, it's like knowing I've still got a *.tar.gz file
of source code
sitting around somewhere if I screw up the code while editing it.  2.
Information Retrieval
system -- as we play around with Oracle 8i for text retrieval and boolean
searching
for complex DL objects, I can't say we're being overly impressed with its
performance.
Since I come more for an information retrieval background than a database
background,
I'm interested in using the DB as a metadata capture system (it does have
benefits
there), and then exporting METS files from the database to be indexed/searched.
I'm betting we can get significantly better retrieval speed, as well as
better implementations
of facilities like ranked searching, using IR tools in place of a database.

We are also trying to explore a cooperative project with another university
in which we'll
make METS metadata available through an OAI interface; that's basically just
an example of the transfer syntax use of METS though.



Jerome McDonough
Digital Library Development Team Leader
Elmer Bobst Library, New York University
70 Washington Square South, 8th Floor
New York, NY 10012
jerome.mcdonough@nyu.edu
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(212) 998-2425