Link it or don't use it: transitioning metadata to linked data in Hydra

The University of Oregon Libraries and Oregon State University Libraries have been successfully collaborating on a digital asset management system for four years, OregonDigital.org. OregonDigital.org holds diverse collections of digital archival materials from art slides to faculty research to traditional digitized and born-digital archival collections. In addition, we host unique collections from local government, historical societies, and museums. In preparation for a migration to a new platform, based on Hydra, we are re-evaluating the metadata schemas used in these collections and transitioning to an open interoperable framework. A key element in the transition to Hydra is a major metadata transformation from locally customized Qualified Dublin Core, VRA Core 4.0, and MODS to Linked Data vocabularies with formal specifications using RDFS, SKOS, and OWL.

This poster presents our use of the property hierarchies included in RDF vocabularies to build interoperability into our Hydra metadata. Our implementation includes automated cross-schema indexing and intelligent display and navigation of properties unknown to the software. This large undertaking involves re-thinking metadata schemas created over fifteen years by multiple institutions, as well as incorporating new elements, such as those from the DataCite schema. By utilizing existing linked data vocabularies and creating linked properties for additional elements, we are attempting one schema across content types and collections, yet is flexible enough to continue to evolve with our needs.