Linked Heritage Glossary

Machine-readable is defined by  the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) as any "format in a standard computer language (not English text) that can be read automatically by a web browser or computer system. (e.g.; xml)."

Machine-readable data is data (or metadata) which is in a format that can be understood by a computer. There are two types: human-readable data that is marked up so that it can also be read by machines (examples; microformats, RDFa) or data file formats intended principally for machines (RDF, XML, JSON).

Publishing public data in an open, standard, machine-readable format is a best practice (good operating practice).

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: Linking cultural heritage information.

See also: Data, Linked data, Linked open data, Metadata, Semantic Web

A procedure where elements in a structured data set (e.g. in a metadata schema) are linked to elements in another data set. It is supported by crosswalks that provide a mapping of metadata elements from one metadata schema to another. Supporting the ability to retrieve the same or similar content in different data source, crosswalks support the so called semantic interoperability.

The Linked Heritage Technology Platform, MINT, implements an aggregation infrastructure offering a crosswalk mechanism to support the following critical activities:

• harvesting and aggregating metadata records whether by standard and proprietary schemas
• migrating from content providers' model to a reference model
• transforming records from the Linked Heritage model to the Europeana Semantic Elements (ESE) and the Europeana Data Model (EDM).

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning objects: MINT Services and Terminology.

Metadata is structured information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use, or manage an information resource. Metadata is often called data about data or information about information. According to Tim Berners-Lee's axiom "metadata is data".

The term metadata is used differently in different communities. Some use it to refer to machine understandable information, while others use it only for records that describe electronic resources. In the library environment, metadata is commonly used for any formal scheme of resource description, applying to any type of object, digital or non-digital. There are three main types of metadata: descriptive metadata, structural metadata and administrative metadata, each of them contributing to the management of information resources and help to ensure their intellectual integrity both now and in the future (See: NISO, Understanding Metadata 2004).

In the context of the Linked Heritage Aggregation, metadata describe digital objects of one of the type accepted by Europeana that will govern which facet they appear under in the portal:

• text (books, letters, archival papers, dissertations, poems, newspaper articles, facsimiles, manuscripts and music scores)

• image (paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, pictures of museum objects, maps, graphic designs, plans and musical notation)

• sound (music and spoken word from cylinders, tapes, discs and radio broadcasts)

• video (films, news broadcasts and television programmes) and

• 3D (virtual 3D representations of objects, architecture or places).

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: MINT Services.

See also: Aggregation, Content, Data, Data Exchange Agreement (DEA), Mapping

MINT: Metadata Interoperability Services composes a web-based platform that was designed and developed to facilitate aggregation initiatives for cultural heritage content and metadata in Europe.

It functions as a server for content ingestion and is based on open source software developed by the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) in the context of the ATHENA project. MINT allows content providers to upload, map, validate and deliver metadata to be sent to Europeana in an only web environment. The platform also provides a management system both for users and organisations that allows the deployment and operation of different aggregation schemas with corresponding user roles and access rights.

Explore further the Linked Heritage learning object: MINT Services.