Using Darwin Core as an attribute to the existing metadata export in the NDAP biodiversity projects

Burke Chih-Jen Ko¹, Kun-Chi Lai¹, Lee-Sea Chen¹, Jack Lin¹, Han Lee¹,
Hsin-Hua Lin¹,Kwang-Tsao Shao¹*

¹Research Center for Biodiveristy, Academia Sinica. Taipei, Taiwan

*Corresponding Author. Email: zoskt@gate.sinica.edu.tw

The Biosphere and Nature Thematic Group of Taiwan’s National Digital Archives Program (NDAP) is responsible for integrating digitized specimens from all of its sub-projects. During the first phase (2002-2006) of the NDAP, most of the sub-projects had their databases designed according to Darwin Core (DwC) in order to ensure the capacity of integration. The Union Catalog, which is the main portal of the National Program, however, uses Dublin Core (DC) as the format of metadata since it integrates both natural and cultural collections. While sub-projects of the Group having to feed the Union Catalog, unevitable compromises occurrs because of the different design purposes of DC and DwC. The second phase of NDAP has just started and we are currently establishing a thematic data portal exclusively for the theme group not only for the Thematic Group. The portal will be a true DwC integration, hence it will enable searching and presentation of natural collections.

To minimize the burden of each sub-project, we’ve developed means to feed both the Union Catalog and the data portal within one single workflow. It is achieved by inserting an additional ‘dwc’ attribute in every XML tag exported from each sub-project. Before the export, carefully considerations about DwC specifications and its difference from DC are discussed extensively among database staff. Therefore, the metadata can be read by the Union Catalog while serving as the content of the thematic data portal. At present, the Thematic Group consists of a total of 23 sub-projects. The establishment of the data portal together with the scientific name repository from TaiBNET will provide a comprehensive searching experience to the natural collections of NDAP.

Keyword: Darwin Core, Information Integration, TaiBNET