RDN/Academy LOM Application Profile Compliance Guidelines

1.1.2 general.identifier.entry - Mandatory

LOM definition:

A globally unique label that identifies this learning resource.

The value of the identifier for this resource as defined within the scheme referred to in 1.1.1 general.identifier.catalog. Note that it is the pairing of the catalog plus the entry values that make the identifier unique.

Who is responsible for ensuring compliance?

Identifiers should be generated automatically by the metadata editor and so compliance is therefore primarily the responsibility of the technical team. However, depending on cluster policy cataloguers may need to check that a given resource doesn't already have an identifier before assigning one.

RDN/LTSN guidelines:

Assign an oai-identifier to the metadata 'item' in the OAI repository. Use the oai-identifier as the basis for a PURL-based Object Identifier (POI).

Use the POI as the value for this element. Use your RDN or LTSN DNS domain name (without any leading 'www.' prefix) as the oai-identifier namespace-identifier.

Examples:

The following are valid oai-identifier identifiers:

• oai:sosig.ac.uk:978706641-21898
• oai:ltsn-01.ac.uk:resources-55

These would give POI identifiers as follows:

• http://purl.org/poi/sosig.ac.uk/978706641-21898
• http://purl.org/poi/ltsn-01.ac.uk/resources-55

N.B. The last section of your identifier (the local code as in 978706641-21898 from the example above) cannot contain spaces or hashes ('#') and is case sensitive so that 978706641-21898a would be different from 978706641-21898A. (Spaces can be used if they are encoded as %20.)

1.2 general.title - Mandatory

LOM definition:

Name given to this learning object.

Who is responsible for ensuring compliance?

The cataloguer is responsible for ensuring that rules concerning capitalization, punctuation and other syntactic issues are strictly adhered to when entering the title information, although it may be wise to technically enforce checking for and stripping trailing full stops.

The ideal situation is that metadata editor software provides separate entry for Series Title, Title and Sub-title into separate entry boxes and that the descriptors be stored as separate entities in the underlying data structure to be concatenated together when expressed as LOM XML.

If the above is the case then Series Title, Title and Sub-title become separate entities, otherwise the three descriptors should be entered using the colon separator as outlined below.

Note that the metadata editor interface must provide a facility to be able to repeat titles where there are transliterations or 'other language' versions and that it must provide the facility to assign language codes to each title instance.

RDN/LTSN guidelines:

Transcribe the title preserving the original wording, order and spelling. Capitalization should follow agreed rules, i.e. only the first letter of the first word plus proper nouns and acronyms, or capitalization of the first letter of the first word and of all major keywords but not conjunctions. Punctuation need not reflect the usage of the original. Subtitles should be separated from the title using a space colon space (' : '). This element may not be repeated, so only one title may be encoded.

Additional help

1. This information is to be taken from the resource itself.
2. Titles beginning with an article should have their word order preserved.
3. The title element is not repeatable other than where multiple translations or transliterations (removal of diacritics) are included.

4. Main title should be in original language of the resource. If the title is in a non-Latin script, eg. Cyrillic, transliterate it, using one of the British Standards/British Museum standards. Do not enter titles in non-Latin scripts. Cut and paste other non-English titles from Web pages as they appear, eg. Educación y formación but then add a variant without accents (diacritics) eg. Educacion y formacion, so that users can search both versions of title. Use this free Web site for adding accents yourself, if you cannot cut and paste:

   http://www.xplor.org/charactermap.cfm

   N.B. Cutting and pasting from MS Word or other non-HTML documents can introduce characters that may cause problems for software handling XML and is best avoided.

5. Do not put full stops at the end of the title.
6. If the learning resource does not have a title, create one that is succinct and descriptive. If a work is deliberately untitled (for example, an artwork purposely left untitled by its creator), use Untitled as its title but, if possible, provide a description of the learning resource in general.description.
7. If a resource is known by two competing yet equally valid titles (e.g. a painting is officially Untitled but historically known as Field of Flowers), provide the title most useful for resource discovery first, followed by the second in parentheses.
8. Some learning resources, especially works of art and archival materials, are representations or surrogates of physical or analog objects (e.g. a jpeg image of Van Gogh's Starry Night is only a surrogate for the painting). Indicate the original title in the title element, but make certain their surrogate nature is described in other key elements within your metadata record.
9. For items such as journal articles where journal title and volume, part and page reference information needs to be included, you may wish to include this information in the 7.1 relation.kind set to ispartof and 7.2.2 relation.resource.description elements. Note that this complexity should be hidden from the cataloguer by the metadata editor software. The cataloguer should enter the journal title and volume, part and page reference information separated by space dash space (' - ') as follows:
   
   Journal of Teacher Development - 5 (3) October 1996 - pp.39-46
   
   ISSN and ISBN information can be encoded in the 7 relation section as follows:

   
   <catalogentry>
   <catalog>issn</catalog>
   <entry>
   <langstring>1533-0346</langstring>
   </entry>
   </catalogentry>
   
   

   
   
   An easier alternative if your metadata editor software or underlying data structure cannot cope with the above, is to encode this information as an OpenURL placed in the 4.3 technical.location element:
   
   

   
   openurl:?genre=article
   &atitle=Through%20a%20glass%20darkly%20:%20images%20of%20appraisal
   &title=Journal%20of%20Teacher%20Development&issn=xxxx-yyyy
   &volume=5&spage=39
   &epage=46
   
   

   Note that this has been wrapped for readability. For non-bibliographic physical resources (e.g. VHS videos), provide the URL of a Web page or service that describes how to obtain the resource.
   
   For more information about the OpenURL scheme, see: OpenURL syntax description
   
   A tool for generating OpenURLs is also available.

Examples:

Hungary's revolution : forty years on

Circuit Switching in Action

Electronic Text Centre at the University of New Brunswick

Online workshop for creating effective PowerPoint presentations

Idea : The International Directory of Resources for Education in the Arts

Series title example

Volunteering and networking - Playing the game: how to find work without losing your mind

Untitled resources

Untitled (Field of Flowers)

Resources with more than one alternative title

My thing about stuff : a retrospective analysis (The fourteenth discourse by Hollands and Hollands upon the subject of stuff) (An allegorical tale of stuffage)

Repeated titles (translations)

Idea : The International Directory of Resources for Education in the Arts

Idea : La Base de Données Internationale de l'Éducation Artistique

Idea : La Base de Datos Internacional de Recursos para la Educación en las Artes

1.3 general.language - Mandatory

LOM definition:

The primary human language or languages used within this learning object to communicate to the intended user.

Who is responsible for ensuring compliance?

The cataloguers should be presented with a pick list of languages within their metadata editor interface, which map to the codes listed in the XML document below.

RDN/LTSN guidelines:

Use the language codes defined in RFC 3066.

A list of 2 and 3 letter codes is available in XML.

The rubric for selecting a code should be as follows:

Use a 2 letter code if available, otherwise use a 3 letter code, otherwise use the IANA code.

Examples:

en-GB

N.B. There must be no white-space in the value of this element.

1.4 general.description - Mandatory

LOM definition:

A textual description of the content of this learning object.

Who is responsible for ensuring compliance?

The cataloguer is responsible for ensuring compliance in this instance.

RDN/LTSN guidelines:

The description should be a concise, keyword-intensive description of the object. If the learning object has an abstract or table of contents, that information can be included here, but should not be used instead of a description. Where possible, restrict descriptions to about one paragraph in length. The general description should not be confused with the educational description of the object.

Additional help:

Format for description should be as follows:

1. Describe the nature of the resource e.g. an electronic journal, collection of reports, etc.
2. Describe the intended audience of the information (if available).
3. If appropriate describe who is providing the information (author, organisation, etc)
4. Describe the subject coverage and or content of the resource.
5. Mention any geographical or temporal limits e.g. covers only German language texts from 1994
6. Mention any form or process issues that might affect access or ease of use (charging, registration, need for any special software, etc.) Information about copyright etc. should go into 6.3 rights.description
7. Mention if the resource is available in any other languages. When cataloguing sites which have versions in more than three languages, for example, European Union sites, say this site is available in all the official EU languages or available in a number of languages including Dutch, not available in French, German, Italian etc
8. Avoid making claims about the quality of the resource (i.e. This is a fantastic resource for medical undergraduates..) unless in the context of a statement about the relatively strengths of the resource. The fact that the resource has met your selection criteria implies its quality.
9. Cut and paste from the resource itself with care. Ensure any text taken directly from the resource or other site is quoted with single quotes and is properly attributed. If you don't do this you may be breaching copyright.

1.5 general.keyword - Desirable

LOM definition:

A keyword or phrase describing the topic of this learning object.

Who is responsible for ensuring compliance?

The cataloguers should ensure the syntax and capitalization of entries is consistent and pick suitably descriptive terms. The interface should provide the facility to repeat entries.

RDN/LTSN guidelines:

In general, choose the most significant and unique words for keywords, avoiding those too general to describe a particular object. If the subject of the learning object is a person, enter their name using the Forename Familyname format. For example:

William Shakespeare

If the subject of the learning object is an organisation, enter its name. If the name is hierarchical, list the parts of the hierarchy from largest to smallest, separated by full stops. For example:

Bank of England

Royal Geographical Society.Finance Sub-committee

For multiple free-text keywords repeat the element for each term. There are no requirements regarding the capitalization of keywords though internal (within hub or centre) consistency is recommended.

Additional help:

1. Do not add author names in the keyword list.
2. Acquire keywords from text, synonyms and country of information. Think about what terms users might like to search with to retrieve this record but which are not mentioned and therefore not indexed anywhere else in the record.
3. Transliterations of foreign language titles (without diacritics, i.e. accents or umlauts) should be repeated in the keywords if no facility for inclusion in the title is provided.
4. Ensure the case of the keywords is consistent with your local cataloguing rules. All lower case is recommended.
5. Do not end with a full stop.
6. Capitalize proper nouns.
7. Note there is no limit to the number of uncontrolled keywords you might wish to add.
8. Consider what search terms a user is likely to use to try and find this resource and include them here if they are not already in the title or description to ensure they are indexed.
9. The Humbul cluster policy is to duplicate classification.taxonPath.taxon descriptors here for indexing purposes. Should you wish to do the same, note that the cataloguers should not be required to enter the terms in two places.

2.3.2 lifeCycle.contribute.entity - Mandatory for Publisher information - Desirable for Author

LOM definition:

The identification of and information about entities (i.e., people, organizations) contributing to this learning object. The entities shall be ordered as most relevant first.

Who is responsible for ensuring compliance?

The cataloguers are responsible for ensuring name references are consistent and that individual names are always cited in the same way. Technical may wish to provide the facility to enable the cataloguer to scan this index to check whether the person or organisation name is already in the index. (Index scanning is a function of the Z39.50 protocol and so it may be easier to scan Hub Z39.50 targets. PHP code to enable this is available from Paul.Hollands@ncl.ac.uk). Further the software should wrap the entries in the appropriate vCard tags and for escape the relevant characters for interoperation.

Only if vCard tagging cannot be done automatically should cataloguers be exposed to this aspect of the data entry.

It is suggested cataloguers should be presented with boxes for Publisher and Author rather than be exposed to the whole lifeCycle element tree. Note that these elements should be repeatable. Further, Author title, first name, middle names, last name and name suffixes might best be stored separately in the underlying data structure and also have separate input boxes in the cataloguing interface. Maybe this should be the case for Corporate author too.

RDN/LTSN guidelines:

Use this element to provide information about the author and/or publisher of the learning object by setting 2.3.1 role to author or publisher as appropriate. Structure the value according to vCard. Use the FN and ORG vCard elements for name and organisation name respectively, enclosed between BEGIN:VCARD and END:VCARD. Additional vCard elements may be used but it is recommended that the total number of elements used should be kept to a minimum for the sake of simplicity. Separate vCard components with newlines and escape semicolons and commas thus: \; and \, where these characters appear in a component value. Note that within the N element, semicolons are field delimiters and should not be escaped. Commas are used as list seperators and should not be escaped unless part of a value such as ORG: Pugwash\, Bates and Cabinboy Ltd..

Note that the vCard RFC seems to suggest that the FN element requires names be cited in the Forename Familyname format.

You might also wish to include the names formatted using the N element following this formula:

N:<Family Name>;<Given Name>;<Additional Names>;<Honorific Prefixes, and Honorific Suffixes>

N:Stevenson;John;Philip,Paul;Dr.;Jr., M.D., A.C.P.

Erratum - 6th April 2004

This document previously intimated that vCard elements were to be separated with \n. It is now understood that this was in breach of the vCard RFC and that vCard parsers will not handle this separator. vCard elements should be separated with a new line. In order to ensure that XML parsers preserve the white space this should be wrapped in a CDATA section.

Examples:

  <lifeCycle>
    <contribute>
      <role>
        <source>LOMv1.0</source>
        <value>publisher</value>
      </role>
      <entity>
<![CDATA[BEGIN:VCARD
ORG:University of Oxford
END:VCARD]]>
      </entity>
    </contribute>
    <contribute>
      <role>
        <source>LOMv1.0</source>
        <value>author</value>
      </role>
      <entity>
<![CDATA[BEGIN:VCARD
ORG:City of London School
END:VCARD]]>
      </entity>
    </contribute>
    <contribute>
      <role>
        <source>LOMv1.0</source>
        <value>author</value>
      </role>
      <entity>
<![CDATA[BEGIN:VCARD
FN:William Shakespeare
END:VCARD]]>
      </entity>
    </contribute>
    <contribute>
      <role>
        <source>LOMv1.0</source>
        <value>author</value>
      </role>
      <entity>
<![CDATA[BEGIN:VCARD
FN:Dr John Stevenson Jr.\, M.D.\, A.C.P.
N:Stevenson;John;Philip,Paul;Dr.;Jr., M.D., A.C.P.
END:VCARD]]>
      </entity>
    </contribute>
  </lifeCycle>
     

4.1 technical.format - Desirable

LOM definition:

Technical datatype(s) of (all the components of) this learning object. This data element shall be used to identify the software needed to access the learning object.

Who is responsible for ensuring compliance?

This element is probably best populated automatically. Cataloguers should focus on providing a good human readable description in 4.6 technical.otherPlatformRequirements.

RDN/LTSN guidelines:

For digital resources, the value must be a MIME type. The MIME type of all components should be encoded where they can be determined. For example, for a Flash animation in an HTML Web page, repeat this element to encode both text/html and application/x-shockwave-flash. Use non-digital as the default entry for physical resources.

For Web resources, if you are using a version of Netscape or a Mozilla based browser you should be able to View > Page Info or use a similar option. This will give you a list of all the media types used in the page. You need only cite the MIME type of components which are essential to the educational content of the resource.

If you decide not to use this element, you may wish to make 4.6 otherPlatformRequirements desirable instead of optional.

4.3 technical.location - Mandatory

LOM definition:

A string that is used to access this learning object. It may be a location (e.g., Universal Resource Locator), or a method that resolves to a location (e.g., Universal Resource Identifier). The first element of this list shall be the preferable location.

RDN/LTSN guidelines:

The URL of the learning object, typically as served by a learning object repository. Ensure you cite the full URL including the scheme i.e. http://

http://www.caret.cam.ac.uk/projects/pathology.htm

For bibliographic physical objects (books and journals), encode an OpenURL as follows:

    
    openurl:?genre=article
    &atitle=Information%20gateways%20:%20collaboration%20on%20content
    &title=Online%20Information%20Review
    &issn=1468-4527&volume=24&spage=40&epage=45
    &artnum=1&aulast=Heery&aufirst=Rachel
    
    

Note that this has been wrapped for readability. For non-bibliographic physical resources (e.g. VHS videos), provide the URL of a Web page or service that describes how to obtain the resource.

For more information about the OpenURL scheme, see: OpenURL syntax description

A tool for generating OpenURLs is also available.

Additional help:

1. Copy and paste from the location field of your browser (for accuracy).
2. If the URI ends in an filename such as index.html which the Web server can still resolve without it being included i.e:
   
   http://www.myresource.com/stuff/ resolves sucessfully to http://www.myresource.com/stuff/index.html then exlude the index.html or index.htm section of the URI.
3. Cataloguers should be given guidance about how to deal with URIs containing fragment-ids and sessions identifiers. It is recommended web resources are catalogued only down to the document level and that therefore URIs entered into this element should not contain fragment-ids. This translates to telling the cataloguers to truncate URIs to exclude a has '#' and anything following.
4. Since it is probable you will occasionally come across a situation where there are multiple language versions of a single resource or mirrors of the same resource, you will need to encode the language of the resource using the language codes covered in 1.3 general.language. Your data structure might need to be modified to allow for this (along with your cataloguing interface.) You might also find it useful to include the facility to provide a brief textual description for each URI. Note that this information cannot currently be included in the LOM schema.

4.6 technical.otherPlatformRequirements - Optional (Desirable if 4.2 is not used)

LOM definition:

Information about other software and hardware requirements.

RDN/LTSN guidelines:

Use as a general comment element to describe any technical information the user may require in order to use the resource. May be used as a substitute for, or in addition to 4.1 technical.format.

Examples

Requires an SVG plug-in and a Java enabled browser.

PC (minimum specification: Pentium PC, Windows 95/98/NT4, 16 Mb RAM, 10 Mb available HD space, 16 bit colour graphics) or Macintosh (minimum specification Power PC, 16 Mb RAM, OS 7.5, 10 Mb free HD space, 16 bit colour graphics) platforms.

5.2 educational.learningResourceType - Desirable

LOM definition:

Specific kind of learning object. The most dominant kind shall be first.

Who is responsible for ensuring compliance?

The cataloguers should be provided with a picklist of terms from the RDNLTSNType list.

RDN/LTSN guidelines:

Select terms from the RDNLTSNType list. The full specification is available from the following URL:

http://www.rdn.ac.uk/publications/rdn-ltsn/types/

The table is reproduced below for your convenience.

N.B. The RDN/LTSN list supplements the RDN type list. For many resource such as journal articles, the term will come from the RDN list. Not that there is some confusion about this as there are generic descriptors for learning resources in the RDN list.

5.6 educational.context - Optional

LOM definition:

The principal environment within which the learning and use of this learning object is intended to take place.

RDN/LTSN guidelines:

Select a level from the UK Educational Contexts (UKEC) list - http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/education/ukec/.

The list comprises the following terms:

    nursery education
    primary education
    secondary education
    sixth form college
    further education
    higher education
    continuous professional development
    vocational training
    community education

5.10 educational.description - Optional

LOM definition:

Comments on how this learning object is to be used in the context of teaching and learning.

RDN/LTSN guidelines:

Use this element to indicate possible educational uses for an object. For example: This resource can be used as an introduction to the topic. This element should not be confused with 1.4 general.description.

You might like to include the following:

1. The didactic / pedagogic approach taken by the resource, eg problem based learning, Socratic dialogue, active learning. A resource might take students through a presentation step-by-step or might provide an environment in which students can solve problems.
2. General presentation of the resource where it is relevant to pedagogy. For example, an online text book might be a pdf file where the only mode of navigation is page turning, or it might be richly hyperlinked with alternative routes through the material, a gloassary and search feature.
3. Presence / absence of statement of learning objectives/outcomes the resource addresses. Sometimes it is appropriate to reproduce these.
4. Presence or absence of formative and summative assessment embedded in the resource, and whether formative assessment is embedded "inline" (i.e. in form of occassional questions) or gathered together at the end of a unit.
5. Feedback available to student and teacher on student's progress.

Additional help:

1. Avoid making claims about the quality of the resource (i.e. This is a fantastic resource for medical undergraduates..) unless in the context of a statement about the relatively strengths of the resource. The fact that the resource has met your selection criteria implies its quality.
2. Cut and paste from the resource itself with care. Ensure any text taken directly from the resource or other site is quoted with single quotes and is properly attributed. If you don't do this you may be breaching copyright.

6.2 rights.copyrightAndOtherRestrictions - Mandatory

LOM definition:

Whether copyright or other restrictions apply to the use of this learning object.

RDN/LTSN guidelines:

Set the value of this element to either yes or no to indicate whether there are any restrictions on the use of this learning object. If the value is yes, a description of the restrictions should be included in the 6.3 description element.

6.3 rights.description - Desirable

LOM definition:

Comments on the conditions of use of this learning object.

RDN/LTSN guidelines:

A description of the copyright status and/or any restrictions on the use of this learning object. It should include information about cost.

7.1 relation.kind - Optional

LOM definition:

Nature of the relationship between this learning object and the target learning object.

RDN/LTSN guidelines:

Use the following terms based on Dublin Core:

ispartof
haspart
isversionof
hasversion
isformatof
hasformat
references
isreferencedby
isbasedon
isbasisfor
requires
isrequiredby


7.2 relation.resource - Optional

LOM definition:

The target learning object that this relationship references.

RDN/LTSN guidelines:

The RLLOMAP requires the use of a URL for the related resource. This may not prove practicable for non-networked resources.

8.3 annotation.description - Optional

LOM definition:

The content of this annotation.

RDN/LTSN guidelines:

Intended really for Amazon style reviews and most likely populated by users themselves. Cataloguers should access to be able to amend or remove these where review text is inappropriate.

9.2.2.1 classification.taxonPath.taxon.id - Optional

N.B. Classification information becomes mandatory if you or any service you interoperate with provides browse facilities for their catalogues.

Where classification.purpose equals discipline.

LOM definition:

The identifier of the taxon, such as a number or letter combination provided by the source of the taxonomy.

RDN/LTSN guidelines:

Use the JACS and/or learndirect classification schemes. If using JACS, encode the JACS code (e.g. B920). If using learndirect, encode the learndirect notation (e.g. PL.11)

9.2.2.2 classification.taxonPath.taxon.entry - Optional

N.B. Classification information becomes mandatory if you or any service you interoperate with provides browse facilities for their catalogues.

Where classification.purpose equals discipline.

LOM definition:

The textual label of the taxon.

RDN/LTSN guidelines:

Use the JACS and/or learndirect classification schemes. If using JACS, encode the JACS label (e.g. Occupational Health). If using learndirect, encode the learndirect term (e.g. occupational health).

9.2.2.2 classification.taxonPath.taxon.entry - Optional

N.B. Classification information becomes mandatory if you or any service you interoperate with provides browse facilities for their catalogues.

Where classification.purpose equals educational level.

LOM definition:

The textual label of the taxon.

RDN/LTSN guidelines:

Select a level from the UK Educational Levels (UKEL) list. Note this list is the same as the SCQF list.

9.2.2.1 classification.taxonPath.taxon.id - Optional

N.B. Classification information becomes mandatory if you or any service you interoperate with provides browse facilities for their catalogues.

Where classification.purpose equals idea.

LOM definition:

The identifier of the taxon, such as a number or letter combination provided by the source of the taxonomy.

RDN/LTSN guidelines:

Use a notation or classmark from one of the classification schemes listed in 9.2.1 classification.taxonPath.source.

9.2.2.1 classification.taxonPath.taxon.entry - Optional

N.B. Classification information becomes mandatory if you or any service you interoperate with provides browse facilities for their catalogues.

Where classification.purpose equals idea.

LOM definition:

The textual label of the taxon.

RDN/LTSN guidelines:

Use a term from one of the classification schemes listed in 9.2.1 classification.taxonPath.source.