SobekCM METS Files: Administrative Sections

Overview

This section within the METS document contains the administrative metadata pertaining to the digital object, its components and any original source material from which the digital object is derived. This is encoded within one or more <amdSec> tags within the METS and can contain technical metadata, intellectual property rights, source metadata, and digital provenance information. Each of those types of metadata are encoded within its own top-level tag ( either techMD, rightsMD, sourceMD, or digiprovMD ).

SobekCM Rules

Within SobekCM METS files, each amdSec should contain only one child ( either techMD, rightsMD, sourceMD, or digiprovMD ) and reference only an individual schema, although an unlimited number of amdSecs can be included. Each individual amdSec should be encoded within a single schema; If there are two different schemas being utilized then there should be two separate amdSecs for a SobekCM METS file.

SobekCM METS files can contain amdSecs which refer to the entire digital object. An amdSec cannot reliably be linked to an individual file or an individual division within a structure map

Schemas

METS does not define a vocabulary or syntax for encoding administrative metadata, so all data there is encoded with community-defined standards, or locally produced XML schemas. Each amdSec within a METS file is analyzed by SobekCM. Any amdSec portion which is not recognized by the system is retained to be included in any subsequently written METS files.

The amdSec is currently analyzed in support of standards employed by PALMM/FCLA and in support of a locally-defined SobekCM technical metadata standard.

PALMM / FCLA Schemas

Information necessary for the Digital Archive at FCLA can be encoded within a DAITSS standard. This section is analyzed by the system and the data is retained to be written again within any subsequently written METS file.

Example:

In addition the source institution code can be read from the PALMM entityDesc tag within a <sourceMD> tag in an amdSec. This section is never written in subsequent METS files however.

Example:

SobekCM File Technical Data

Internally, the SobekCM system employs an amdSec/techMD section to record image information. This includes width and height for JPEG and JPEG2000 files to assist with proper formatting when displaying the item's page images. This section should never be hand-coded and can generally be ignored.

Example: