Concepts¶
When you are fleshing out a new object in Athena you are really doing two things:
- Saying what kind of thing it is (its Class).
- Filling in a list of property → value pairs that describe it.
| Slot | Name | Means | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| "a thing" | Class (the kind of object) | what sort of thing you're describing | Letter, Photograph, Collection |
| "has some property" | Property | the aspect you're filling in | Creator, Date, Subject |
| "whose value is X" | Value | the answer you write down | Jane Smith, 1968, Civil Rights |
The Rosetta Stone¶
How Athena's words line up with the Dublin Core standard and the database.
Prose:
This poster has the creator Jane Smith.
Breakdown:
[ a thing ] - [ has some property ] - [ whose value is X ]
Technically:
[ Class ] - [ Property ] - [ Value ]
| Dublin Core | Athena | Database table |
|---|---|---|
| Resource | object | Item, ItemSet, Media |
| Class (type of resource) | class | VocabClass |
| Property | property | VocabProperty |
| property/value pair | metadata field | Value |
| Vocabulary | vocabulary | Vocabulary |
"Object" and "Resource" are the same thing. A "metadata field" is one property → value row.
A class is a kind of thing. An object is one actual thing.
Letter is a class. The letter Jane mailed in 1968 is an object, one
instance of that class. You pick a class once per object, then describe
that object with as many property → value pairs as you like.
Vocabularies¶
A vocabulary is a shared, published dictionary of classes and properties, each with a stable web address so its terms are unambiguous. Athena ships with four:
| Prefix | Vocabulary | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
dcterms |
Dublin Core Terms | the everyday properties: Title, Creator, Subject, Date… |
dctype |
DCMI Type Vocabulary | broad classes: Text, Image, Sound, Collection… |
bibo |
Bibliographic Ontology | publishing classes: Book, Letter, Article, Thesis… |
a |
Athena Archive Vocabulary | a few Athena-only fields (e.g. migration notes) |
When you see a class or property written as dcterms:creator, the part before
the colon is the vocabulary and the part after is the term. That reads as "the creator
property from the dcterms vocabulary."
Beyond the basics¶
- Objects covers the three kinds of thing you catalog: Item, Item Set, and Media.
- Metadata values covers the three shapes a value can take, and the one that trips people up.