The GeoBlacklight schema is an extension to Dublin Core specifically for geospatial records. This schema was described by its creators, Darren Hardy and Kim Durante, in the 2014 Code4Lib article, "A Metadata Schema for Geospatial Resource Discovery Use Cases."
File Transformations
Typically, geospatial librarians who wish to create GeoBlacklight JSON files are generating them from existing records in other metadata standards. This can be accomplished with XSLTs that transform the records. Here are links to XSLTs for different standards:XSLTs written by Kim Durante
XSLT written by Kevin Dyke
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Screenshot of customized instance of Omeka - item edit page.
Form Based Editor for GeoBlacklight
For some workflows, a form based editing tool might be preferred for creating GeoBlacklight metadata. This is the case for items that do not have existing metadata, for users uncomfortable with XSLT, and for items already in the Dublin Core standard.
At this point in time, a customized version of Omeka is the only pre-configured option available. Andrew Battista and Stephen Balogh at NYU have pioneered this method and we have adopted it to use for the Geospatial Data Discovery Project.
FAQ: Isn't Omeka just for displaying collections and web exhibits?
This is the most common association people have with Omeka. However, it has greatly expanded in recent years to become a relatively robust record manager. There are many plugins available and it is a highly customizable open source application. It is also a Dublin Core focused application, which is already very close to the GeoBlacklight schema.Here are some of the most useful Omeka features and plugins for creating GeoBlacklight metadata:
- Ingesting Records
- OAIpmh Harvester: Records can be ingested via OAI is the institution has enabled it.
- CSV Import: This fork of the default CSV import plugin allows the user to import items with custom elements
- XML Import: This allows the user to import XML records.
- Editing Records
- CSV Import: This plugin (see above) also allows the user to batch update items with spreadsheets.
- Bulk Metadata Editor: This plugin allows the user to perform batch find and replace functions
- Simple Vocab: Administrators can create drop down lists to choose from.
- Dublin Core Extended: Adds all of the extended elements to the Simple Dublin Core in the default Omeka instance.
- Hide Elements: Administrators can customize the editing interface by hiding unused fields.
- Geospatial metadata
- GeoBlacklight Plugin + Custom Vocabularies: This plugin introduces GeoBlacklight-specific elements, and exports GeoBlacklight schema JSON files that can be directly added to a GeoBlacklight geoportal.
- The GeoNames Ontology has been incorporated into the GeoBlacklight plugin. This allows the user to search for a place name and import the GeoNames URI and bounding box coordinates.
- Exporting records
- Records can be exported in many formats, including CSV, Dublin Core, RDF, mets, GeoBlacklight JSON
- OAI-PMH Repository: Allows other projects to harvest the records.
Note that this list of plugins does not even include the standard add-ons used by most Omeka users, Exhibit Builder and Simple Pages. Omeka does not need to be used as a public site. For collaborative projects, it works well to simply utilize its record management features.