Union Catalog Design & Function

The Union Catalog Core Registry is designed to support several purposes:

O Provide sufficient information to allow users of any type to meet their core information needs:

-- Find: Find a moving image based on search criteria

-- Identify: Correctly interpret the information they have found

-- Select: Select the most responsive moving image(s) when a search retrieves multiple results

-- Obtain: Obtain the selected moving image--whether in physical form requiring onsite viewing, purchase of a copy, etc. or whether the moving image is in digital form available for immediate download or streaming

O Provide increased functionality for participants

-- Cataloging utilities in different schema will be provided as application profiles, in low-cost or open-source downloadable databases to enable any organization to catalog their moving images

-- Export/display utilities will be provided to allow participants to participate in OAI data mining intiatives with other consortia, via the MIC, rather than developing the OAI facility locally. The OAI facility will support exclusion of individual bibliographic records from OAI export. Export in the organization's own schema (for only those fields conforming to the MIC core registry) will be available. Display in the organization's own schema will be supported. MIC can thus serve as either as the primary or backup online catalog for participating organizations.

O Provide support for MIC portals. MIC uses portals for multiple purposes:

-- Context: Provide contextualized information suitable for different audiences. Metadata for moving image archivists will include more technical information than metadata for the general public or for educators, for example. The NSDL portal, "Science Goes to the Movies, " will include only science-themed moving images and metadata appropriate for science educators.

-- Research and collaboration: A goal of MIC is to use portals for communities to explore access strategies specific to organization type (e.g. Broadcast news archives) or format (e.g. digital video). Currently, MPEG-7 mapping will be used for a forthcoming digital video portal (Phase II) that will allow end users to focus their searches exclusively on digital video resources and will allow participating organizations to explore advanced access strategies via MPEG-7, most probably through one or more collaborative grants.

DIAGRAM ONE illustrates the current draft Union Catalog core regsitry database design, as envisioned by designer Yang Yu, database architect at Rutgers University Libraries:

DIAGRAMS TWO AND THREE illustrate the mapping functionality and purpose for the Union Catalog core registry database.