Mapping Dublin Core Elements to Sakai 'Resources' Metadata Fields

As mentioned in my previous post, I have been working on creating a table that shows how selected Dublin Core metadata elements map to the available metadata fields in Sakai. I've put a copy of this up on my Wetpaint wiki, for reference.

For researchers such as myself, one issue with metadata is that it is relatively simple to deal with when you are talking about a handful of resources, but the process becomes radically more complex when resources start to number in the hundreds. Equally, the ability to auto-detect metadata has to rate high on any librarian's or archivist's wish-list for an information system design. So, what does Sakai have to offer?

We are involved with a pilot project which should help automate the process of "siphoning" digital resources from our Sakai project worksite into our institutional digital repository. We've come up with a simple metadata scheme, based on Dublin Core. Now, we need to know how much metadata Sakai can "auto-slurp" from our files, and how much we may need to enter manually. If manual edits turn out to be necessary, which they may well do, then we need to know exactly how to get the right information into Sakai, and from there, into DSpace.

In Sakai, from the user's/regular site admin's perspective, metadata is associated with individual Resources and is displayed in the Resources tool for an individual worksite. If you click on an individual resource, you can then click on "Edit Details." This will reveal a screen containing both the auto-detected metadata (some of which is manually editable) and various "optional" fields. Some of the "optional" fields are hidden away under an expandable heading titled "Optional properties."

For the most part, the fields available in Sakai Resources correspond closely (as you'd hope / expect) to standard DC elements. There are a couple of overlaps and oddities: for example, it's unclear how the "Description" field in Sakai differs from the "Abstract" field. And in place of the familiar DC elements "Rights Manager" and "Rights Owner", Sakai offers "Copyright Status" (associated with a drop-down menu offering a slew of optional settings) -- which I suppose is intended to address the problem of how a resource stored in a Sakai worksite may eventually be used by others. (In Cambridge's Sakai instance, CamTools, the default setting for Copyright Status is: "I own copyright"). But addressing end-users' behaviour is slightly different from making a statement of who owns or manages the rights to a particular resource. Maybe I've got this wrong, but I'm certainly confused by it. At least, I hope I'm learning something.