Digital Heritage Item Metadata Fields

This article provides detail for each of the Digital Heritage Item metadata fields. All the information here is presented in the helper text within the Digital Heritage Item edit/creation screen.

Mukurtu Essentials

Title

A short, descriptive name for the digital heritage item. The title does not have to be unique but should give users useful information about the item when browsing or searching.

This field is plain text and limited to 255 characters.

Cultural protocols

Cultural protocols determine which users can access this content. Cultural protocols are managed by their parent community, which represents a group of contributors. All content must be assigned at least one cultural protocol. Most content only requires one cultural protocol, but more granular access can be specified by selecting multiple protocols, or even protocols from multiple communities.

IDs, UUIDs, or names of the cultural protocols, separated by your selected multi-value delimiter. If using names, they must be exact and match only a single protocol.

Sharing setting

For content with multiple protocols assigned, sharing settings help to determine a content item's level of access. Any is the less restrictive setting as it means that the content can be shared with people belonging to any one or more of the protocols selected. All is more restrictive as users must belong to all the selected protocols to view the collection.

Either 'Any' or 'All', case insensitive.

Category

Categories are high-level descriptive terms that help users browse and discover digital heritage items. Each site defines their own set of categories to reflect the scope of their items. Each digital heritage item requires at least one category, but more can be selected as needed.

Taxonomy term names, IDs, or UUIDs, separated by your selected multi-value delimiter. Each name must be exact and match only one term in that vocabulary.

Media assets

Media assets are a key element of most digital heritage items, though they are not required. Supported media types are images, documents, video, audio, and embed code. Digital heritage items can include more than one media asset, and each media asset can be a different media type. Media assets can be assigned a different cultural protocol from the digital heritage item to allow differential access to the media assets and metadata.

IDs, UUIDs, or titles of the references, separated by your selected multi-value delimiter. Each title must be exact and match only one item.

Summary

A short summary of the digital heritage item. The summary should supplement the title and help distinguish between similar items. The summary is displayed as part of the item preview when browsing the site.

This field is plain text and limited to 255 characters. Other fields allow for longer, more in-depth description.

Creator

A creator is the person or group primarily responsible for making or providing the core media assets or knowledge represented in a digital heritage item. While a creator is usually a single person, it could also be a clan, tribe, culture group, or organization. A digital heritage item can have multiple creators. Examples include a basket designer or weaver, knowledge holders who provided information for a book, a book’s author or illustrator, singers, songwriters, dancers, or performers. Names can be in any format that is appropriate for the content, eg: John Smith or Smith, John.

Taxonomy term names, IDs, or UUIDs, separated by your selected multi-value delimiter. Each name must be exact and match only one term in that vocabulary. New terms will be created if they do not already exist.

Contributor

A contributor is a person or group who aided in the making of a digital heritage item. While a contributor is usually a single person, it could also be a clan, tribe, culture group, or organization. A digital heritage item can have multiple contributors. Examples include someone who wrote, compiled, or illustrated a book or recorded a song, the people who edited or produced a film, or people collaborated or consulted on a project. Names can be in any format that is appropriate for the content, eg: John Smith or Smith, John.

Taxonomy term names, IDs, or UUIDs, separated by your selected multi-value delimiter. Each name must be exact and match only one term in that vocabulary. New terms will be created if they do not already exist.

Original date

The creation date of the media asset or information represented in the digital heritage item. The date should be as precise as possible, and either the year, year-month, or year-month-day can be entered.

YYYY, YYYY-MM, or YYYY-MM-DD value.

Date description

Use to supplement the original date field, or when a precise creation date of the media asset or information represented in the digital heritage item is not known. Some examples of approximate timeframes or circa dates can include Summer YYYY or circa 1800s.

This field is plain text and limited to 255 characters.

Mukurtu Core

Cultural narratives

Cultural narratives include historical or social context, expert community knowledge, community stories, and other relevant cultural context for the digital heritage item. For example, if the item is a basket this field may contain a narrative from the basket­ maker about their technique, or it may tell a story contrasting how the baskets were used by previous generations and how they are used today.

Formatted text.

Traditional knowledge

Traditional knowledge includes in-­depth community-specific knowledge about the digital heritage item. It is often used to provide information of social, spiritual, or esoteric significance. For example, if the item is a basket, this field may contain community, tribe, or clan-specific knowledge about the significance of design that is not widely known or that is specific to that community.

Formatted text.

Description

Descriptions provide an account, explanation, or description of the digital heritage item or media asset. This may include physical characteristics (i.e. photograph, manuscript, newspaper clipping), content information (i.e. what is depicted, content of text), an explanation of what is depicted, digitization and processing information, general notes, and any other relevant information that does not fit into a more structured field.

Formatted text.

Permissions and Rights

Local Contexts

"The Local Contexts Traditional Knowledge (TK) and Biocultural (BC) Labels are tools for Indigenous communities and local organizations. Developed through sustained partnership and testing within Indigenous communities across multiple countries, the Labels allow communities to express local and specific conditions for sharing and engaging in future research and relationships in ways that are consistent with already existing community rules, governance, and protocols for using, sharing, and circulating knowledge and data." For more information, visit Local Contexts.

You must first customize your TK and BC Labels using the Local Contexts Hub and import your Project(s) before you can apply Projects or Labels to digital heritage items.

Local Contexts projects

Select one or more Local Contexts Projects. This field will apply all of the Labels from the selected Local Contexts Project(s) to the digital heritage item.

Local Contexts Project ID values, separated by your selected multi-value delimiter.

Local Contexts Labels and Notices

Select one or more Labels from the appropriate Local Contexts Project. If a complete project has already been selected, do not also select individual Labels from the same project. This field allows selective application of one or more Labels from any available Local Contexts Project to the digital heritage item. For more information, refer to the Using Labels and Notices article.

Local Contexts Project ID:Label/Notice ID values, separated by your selected multi-value delimiter.

Citing Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers

For a complete definition of this citation method and its fields, refer to More Than Personal Communication: Templates For Citing Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers by Lorisia MacLeod.

The ID or UUID of the paragraph.

Name of the Elder or Knowledge Keeper

The Knowledge Keeper's name(s), according to their personal or community preferences. This may include their appropriate title or status.

This field is plain text and limited to 255 characters.

Nation or Community

Including the Knowledge Keeper's Nation or community foregrounds the importance of relationships when it comes to Indigenous knowledges and recognizes which nations hold which teachings. The nation/community element of the citation not only recognizes the important relationship of an Elder or Knowledge Keeper to their nation or community, it helps celebrate the nuances between different community teachings.

This field is plain text and limited to 255 characters.

Treaty Territory

For some individuals, or in relation to some teachings, it may be important for the Knowledge Keeper to acknowledge their relationship to a treaty. This may be particularly important regarding oral teachings about land or treaty rights. Only used if applicable and indicated by the Knowledge Keeper.

This field is plain text and limited to 255 characters.

City or Community they live in

Knowledge Keepers may live in places that differ from the origins of their knowledge, nation, or birthplace, and, in some cases, this may be an important relationship they want to recognize. Only used if applicable and indicated by the Knowledge Keeper.

This field is plain text and limited to 255 characters.

A Brief Description or Title of the Teaching

Information such as the familial provenance of the teaching could be included here. For example, the citation might read: “Story about the sisters of the river as told to [Name of story keeper] by their grandmother [or the grandmother’s name].” This element should be discussed with the Knowledge Keeper, to properly describe or classify the knowledge they are sharing.

This field is plain text and limited to 255 characters.

Date

As exact a date as possible is preferred to help other scholars working with the same Knowledge Keeper to identify which teaching was being cited. This can also be key if there are temporal or seasonal restrictions to knowledge, which should be discussed in depth with the Knowledge Keeper if they are considering including that knowledge in a publication that may be read at any time.

YYYY, YYYY-MM, or YYYY-MM-DD value.

Rights and Usage

A statement about the appropriate rights and usage regarding the digital heritage item, media asset, or presented knowledge. This may include identifying the legal or traditional rights holder. If the rights holder should be contacted for permission to use, reproduce, circulate, reference, or cite the item, provide their contact information.

This field is plain text and limited to 255 characters.

Rights Statements

"RightsStatements.org provides standardized rights statements that can be used by cultural heritage institutions to indicate the copyright status of digital objects that they make available online, either on their own website or via aggregation platforms. These rights statements are high level summaries of the underlying rights status of the digital objects that they apply to. These rights statements are intended to be used in addition to (more detailed) rights information that institutions already have and not to replace existing information." For more information, visit rightsstatement.org.

The value or the label of allowed values.

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-OW-EU/1.0

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-NC/1.0

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-RUU/1.0

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-CR/1.0

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-NC/1.0

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-OKLR/1.0

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0

Creative Commons Licenses

Creative Commons licenses provide a standardized way for copyright holders to grant the public permission to use their creative work under copyright law, and to specify the ways in which their work may be altered, shared, and used. For more information, visit creativecommons.org.

The value or the label of allowed values.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Additional Fields

Type

Type is the broad nature, genre, or function of the media asset(s) represented in the digital heritage item. Examples include Image, Text, Sound, Video, or Physical object.

Taxonomy term names, IDs, or UUIDs, separated by your selected multi-value delimiter. Each name must be exact and match only one term in that vocabulary. New terms will be created if they do not already exist.

Format

Format is the specific physical and/or digital properties of the media asset(s) represented in the digital heritage item. This may include details about the physical format (pamphlet, glass slide, open reel), duration (90 minutes), extent (20 pages, 11 sheets), dimensions (4x6", 12x6x8cm), file format (PDF, JPG, MP3, MP4), or other additional information as needed.

Taxonomy term names, IDs, or UUIDs, separated by your selected multi-value delimiter. Each name must be exact and match only one term in that vocabulary. New terms will be created if they do not already exist.

Identifier

A unique, unambiguous reference to the digital heritage item or media asset Identifiers are often provided by the contributing institution or organization so the original item can be located. Examples include call numbers or accession numbers.

This field is plain text and limited to 255 characters.

Keywords

Keywords are used to tag digital heritage items to ensure that the items are discoverable when searching or browsing. They are often used to supplement categories as they can be created on the fly and may be more specific. Keywords feeds into the keywords taxonomy.

Taxonomy term names, IDs, or UUIDs, separated by your selected multi-value delimiter. Each name must be exact and match only one term in that vocabulary. New terms will be created if they do not already exist.

Language

Language(s) present in the digital heritage item. This includes the textual metadata and any media assets. This field feeds into the language taxonomy.

Taxonomy term names, IDs, or UUIDs, separated by your selected multi-value delimiter. Each name must be exact and match only one term in that vocabulary. New terms will be created if they do not already exist.

Map points

A detailed, interactive mapping tool that allows placing and drawing multiple locations related to a digital heritage item. Locations can be single points, paths, rectangles, or free-form polygons. Each location can be given a basic label. This field is also used for the browse by map tools. Note that this mapping data will be shared with the same users or visitors as the rest of the digital heritage item. If the location is sensitive, carefully consider using this field.

The data is stored in a GeoJSON format.

Location description

A descriptive field to provide additional context and depth to the location(s) connected to the digital heritage item. This HTML field can support rich text and embedded media assets using the editing toolbar.

Formatted text.

Location (taxonomy)

A named place, or places, that are closely connected to the digital heritage item. Examples include the location where a photo was taken, places named in a story, or the site where an object was created. This field feeds into the location taxonomy.

Taxonomy term names, IDs, or UUIDs, separated by your selected multi-value delimiter. Each name must be exact and match only one term in that vocabulary. New terms will be created if they do not already exist.

Source

Source provides a reference to the resource, collection, or institution where the digital heritage item is held, described, originated, or contributed. Examples include collections (e.g., McWhorter Collection), institutions (e.g., Library of Congress, American Folklife Center), or donors (e.g., Donated by John Smith).

This field is plain text and limited to 255 characters.

Publisher

The person, organization, or service responsible for publishing the digital heritage item or media asset.

Taxonomy term names, IDs, or UUIDs, separated by your selected multi-value delimiter. Each name must be exact and match only one term in that vocabulary. New terms will be created if they do not already exist.

External links

Links to other records or websites where the digital heritage item is available online, or to other related websites. Examples include the online catalog of the holding repository, or the publisher's listing.

The link in Markdown format: [Title](https://url.com), separated by your selected multi-value delimiter.

URL

The address of the external site.

This must be formatted as a full URL, such as https://example.com.

Link text

Display text for the external link. If no link text is provided, the full URL will be displayed.

This is a plain text field.

Subject

Subject reflects the main topic(s) of the digital heritage item. It is primarily used to reference existing controlled vocabularies (eg: Library of Congress Subject Headings or Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus), but a site-specific subject list can be developed as well.

Taxonomy term names, IDs, or UUIDs, separated by your selected multi-value delimiter. Each name must be exact and match only one term in that vocabulary. New terms will be created if they do not already exist.

Transcription

A basic text transcription of an audio or video recording, or of text in an image or document. Including a transcription allows the text to be discoverable when searching for digital heritage items.

This HTML field can support rich text and embedded media assets using the editing toolbar.

People

A person or people represented or referenced in the digital heritage item or media asset. This field complements the creator and contributor fields. Examples include people identifiable in a photograph, people speaking in an audio recording, present in a video, or referenced in a document. Names can be in any format that is appropriate for the content, eg: John Smith or Smith, John. This field feeds into the people taxonomy.

Taxonomy term names, IDs, or UUIDs, separated by your selected multi-value delimiter. Each name must be exact and match only one term in that vocabulary. New terms will be created if they do not already exist.

Related Content

Related content

Digital heritage items can be related to any other site content when there is a connection between those items that is important to show. Examples include multiple photos of a place, objects discussed in an oral history, or dictionary words that appear in a digital heritage item.

IDs, UUIDs, or titles of the references, separated by your selected multi-value delimiter. Each title must be exact and match only one item.