ECAI Metadata Clearinghouse
The Metadata Clearinghouse plays a central role in ECAI. One of the primary goals of ECAI is to be able to drill down through time and space and choose from a rich array of primary materials from multiple scholars and sources. Therefore, one of the primary funcitons of ECAI is to create a catalog of a wide range of cultural data and make it accessible in a single interface.
The system developed for managing and cataloging data is the
ECAI Metadata Clearinghouse. ECAI's Metadata Clearinghouse includes
records which describe datasets or map layers. ECAI metadata records
include bibliographic and descriptive metadata for resource discovery
allowing identification of resources relevant to a particular
place, time or thematic interest. They also contain connection
metadata for each dataset which allows software such as TimeMap™
to connect to the data server across the Internet (or to local
files), drill down into the data and integrate results from different
datasets (heterogeneous distributed database query.)
In order to make the clearinghouse globally usable, we are conducting
research to make the clearinghouse multi-lingual. Part of our
efforts include a project coordinated by the Japan team to translate
the metadata records into Japanese. Therefore, it is important
to note that records contributed to the clearinghouse may be translated
into Japanese or another language as this research continues.
If you have any questions about the Japan team project, please
contact: Shoichiro Hara, National Institute of Japanese Literature,
Japan, hara@nijl.ac.jp.
The ECAI Metadata Clearinghouse can be used to find and access data.
It can also be used to register data for others to use.
- If you are interested in this option, please look over the documentation and contact ECAI for a user login and further documentation.
