Shortcuts for inheriting repeated values in metadata

For metadata submitted to ELAR as part of a deposit, you can use the following shortcuts to avoid repeatedly re-typing the same values.

If many of the metadata field values reoccur (for example, the name of the person who made a set of recordings), you can 'inherit' metadata values from other records rather than repeat them.

Inheriting metadata in a table

You can inherit metadata values in a table by adding a field (column) called 'inheritsMetadataFrom'. The value for this field should be the unique identifier of the record the metadata is inherited from. You can override any inherited values by adding data for that field.

For example, in the following table, rec2.wav will inherit the contributor and language field values from rec1.wav

Note that all values are inherited unless you overide particular values. For example, in the table, rec3.wav inherits all values from rec1.wav except the value for language.

Inheriting metadata with OLAC

You can do this in OLAC compliant XML using the "Relation" field and "refine" attribute, using the attribute qualifier of "inheritsMetadataFrom". For example, suppose you have the following data record:

<olac xmlns="http://www.language-archives.org/OLAC/0.4">
  <identifier>rec1.wav</identifier>
  <title lang="en">The road to good reading</title>
  <contributor>Smith, John L.</contributor>
  <subject.language code="en"/>
  <coverage> India </coverage>
  <coverage scheme="TGN"> Guadalcanal (island)</coverage>
  <coverage>19th century</coverage>
  <creator>Bloomfield, Leonard</creator>
  <creator>Linguistic Society of America </creator>
  <creator refine="editor">Sapir, Edward</creator>
  <date code="1992"/>
</olac>

If you had a second recording with a different title but the same contributors and coverage and creators, you could write:

<olac xmlns="http://www.language-archives.org/OLAC/0.4">
  <identifier>rec2.wav</identifier>
  <title lang="en">The road past good writing</title>
  <relation refine="inheritsMetadataFrom">rec1.wav</relation>
</olac>

When we accession the materials we will then duplicate these metadata elements and values.

Inheriting metadata with IMDI

If you are using IMDI compliant XML for metadata, we recommend that you use the IMDI editor. The IMDI editor allows you to populate records from a repository, making the duplication of commonly used values a simple task. We recommend that you make use of the repository functions rather than model the inheritance of metadata values.

Inheriting metadata in a relational database

If you are using relational format for managing metadata, then you should have designed the architecture in a way that eliminated the redundant repetition of metadata values. You will need to clearly document the structure of your database so that we can appropiately map the metadata values to objects.