IDN Catalogue Profile - Guidance

This is a guide to assist you with using the Indigenous Data Network's Catalogue Profile.

How do I...

  1. Understand the Catalogue Profile, at a high level?
  2. Create metadata according to the profile?
  3. Indicate something in a catalogue is Indigenous?
  4. Calculate FAIR or CARE scores?
  5. Improve my catalogue's FAIR or CARE scores?
  6. Express my catalogue's metadata according to the profile but in other formats?
  7. Validate my metadata?
  8. See some examples?

1. Understand the Catalogue Profile, at a high level

What

Metadata is used to describe things in catalogues, so they can be discovered, understood and used.

This "catalogue profile" is a specialised form of a common catalogue data model - DCAT, the Data Catalog Vocabulary - that is tuned to support:

Use of metadata according to this Profile should allow users to tell how catalogued resources relate to Indigenous people and what arrangements are in place for sensitive governance of them.

No amount of metadata can substitute for actual governance arrangements, so use of this Catalogue Profile is limited to the representation of such arrangements only.

How

The metadata elements that this Profile promotes to do these things are not new - they are all existing and normal parts of DCAT - but specific arrangements of their use and reference data supplied for use with them is new.

This Profile suggests three main things you can do to address the dot points above for a resource:

  1. Record basic, standardised, metadata for it
  2. Represent, in detail, relations people and organisations have to it
  3. Indicate any policies that you have that affect it

These three approaches are detailed as "patterns" in the Specification Document's Patterns Section.

Metadata Creation Tool Screenshot

2. Create metadata according to the profile

You will need to produce metadata in a specific format - RDF - to meet the requirements of this Profile, however, there are tools to assist with this.

You can:

  1. Use the Metadata Entry Form
  2. Type out RDF data, manually
  3. Use Software

2.1 Use the Metadata Entry Form

This is our recommended starting point

The Indigenous Data Network maintains an online, interactive, tool that you can use to create metadata according to the IDN Catalogue Profile.

The tool contains examples you can load, video tutorials and displays the metadata it creates as you fill in form fields.

It auto-calculates CARE and FARE scores as you go too.

PREFIX dcat: <http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat#>
PREFIX dcterms: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/>
PREFIX prov: <http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#>
PREFIX sdo: <https://schema.org/>
PREFIX xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#>

<https://data.idnau.org/pid/resource/52f6121c-724f-47b4-9adf-b785dbcdae03>
    dcterms:created "1976-01-01"^^xsd:date ;
    dcterms:description "Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are warned that this resource may contain images, transcripts or names of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples now deceased. This resource is not for general viewing, in areas where traditional Aboriginal religion is still significant, this book should be used only after consultation with local male religious leaders as it contains ceremonial and gender specific information. It may also contain historically and culturally sensitive words, terms, and descriptions." ;
    dcterms:modified "2024-04-28"^^xsd:date ;
    dcterms:title "Nomads of the Australian desert" ;
    dcterms:type <https://data.idnau.org/pid/vocab/indigeneity/about-indigenous-people> ;
    dcat:theme
        <https://vocabularyserver.com/apais/xml.php?skosTema=7> ,
        <https://vocabularyserver.com/apais/xml.php?skosTema=8> ;
    prov:qualifiedAttribution
        [
            dcat:hadRole
                <http://def.isotc211.org/iso19115/-1/2018/CitationAndResponsiblePartyInformation/code/CI_RoleCode/author> ,
                <https://linked.data.gov.au/def/data-roles/author> ;
            prov:agent <https://data.idnau.org/pid/person/8cfcfc08-3cec-40e1-a772-a8860c118c9d> ;
        ] ,
        [
            dcat:hadRole
                <http://def.isotc211.org/iso19115/-1/2018/CitationAndResponsiblePartyInformation/code/CI_RoleCode/custodian> ,
                <https://linked.data.gov.au/def/data-roles/custodian> ;
            prov:agent <https://data.idnau.org/pid/organization/29c3e9cb-5ea5-456e-b4fa-a90828207ffc> ;
        ] ;
.

<https://data.idnau.org/pid/organization/29c3e9cb-5ea5-456e-b4fa-a90828207ffc>
    a sdo:Organization ;
    sdo:name "University of Queensland Library" ;
.

<https://data.idnau.org/pid/person/8cfcfc08-3cec-40e1-a772-a8860c118c9d>
    a sdo:Person ;
    sdo:name "Charles Pearcy Mountford" ;
.

2.2 Type out RDF data, manually

The metadata format for the IDN's Catalogue Profile is RDF, which can be created in a plain text file.

The Metadata Entry Form auto-generates RDF as you fill it out, but you are also able to manually type out data files if you like.

See this profile's Specification Document's Examples Section for a complete RDF data file and remember: you can validate RDF data files supplied in this profile

Since the IDN CP is a profile of DCAT, the Data Catalog Vocabulary, and reuss many DCAT elements, you can use DCAT's documentation that contains lots of RDF examples too.

2.3 Use Software

Lots of catalogue tools are able to export metadata in formats that are compatible with this profile. For example, the open source CKAN tool can implement its own profiles of DCAT which are compatible with this profile! Another example: the EMu collections management software can export Dublin Core metadata in an XML format that is also interpretable as RDF.

Aboriginal Flag

3. Indicate something in a catalogue is Indigenous

Easy or hard?

This may be very easy... or very hard! There is no ONE way to indicate whether something is indigenous or not and some things obviously are, others, it's hard to tell.

Here are two things you can do:

  1. Record basic metadata
  2. Link to Indigenous people/groups

Once you have done these things,you may also want to specifically classify your resource as Indigenous, and for that you could:

  1. Tag using a well-known Indigenous classifier

3.1 Basic metadata

We recommend that you record in metadata basic facts about resources that may lead to an understanding about them being indigenous, rather than trying to directly say "this is indigenous". For example, you might

  • provide a detailed description/abstract
    • record as much as you know about the resource: humans will be able to understand this indigenousness of something by such a description... and AI will too.
  • supply tags/keywords about research areas or language groups that are Indigenous
    • e.g. Fields of Research codes such as "450601" (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander astronomy and cosmology) or the AustLang code "A20" (Wilyara): 
      • :resource-x dcat:theme <https://linked.data.gov.au/def/anzsrc-for/2020/450601>
      • :resource-x dcat:theme <https://data.idnau.org/pid/ilm/feature/A20>
    • The IDN provides these terms and many others you can use for this purpose within a collection of vocabularies on the the IDN reference data platform.
  • link to Indigenous places
    • e.g. indicate the resource is about an Australian Bureau of Statistic Indigenous Location such as 70900503 or a Native Title region like Ooratippra: 
      • :resource-x dcterms:spatial <https://linked.data.gov.au/dataset/asgsed3/ILOC/70900503>
      • :resource-x dcterms:spatial <https://data.idnau.org/pid/nntt/DCD2011-001>
    • The IDN provides a number of reference datasets of Indigenous location on the the IDN reference data platform that can be browsed or searched for text or on a map.

3.2 Link to Indigenous people/groups

You can specifically indicate that a catalogued resource was created by an Indigenous person or that it is about an Indigenous group by linking it to the person/group and supplying a relevant role, like this:

Good Identifiers

You should use a well-known identifier for an Indigenous person or group, rather than supplying their name in text. For example use the ORCID <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1398-7524> for Prof. Marcia Langton, instead of "Marcia Langton"

The IDN supplies a searchable database of such identifiers to assist with this:

  • Resource X as created by an Indigenous Person 
    • :resource-x dcterms:created :an-indigenous-person
  • Resource Y is about the Wiradjuri people - an Indigenous community 
    • :resource-y
        prov:qualifiedAttribution [
            prov:agent <http://example.com/community/wiradjuri> ;
            prov:hadRole drole:subjectAgent ;
        ]

This Profile recommends the use of "roles" to indicate specialised relationships between people and catalogued resources. In the example above, you can see that the Wiradjuri people are the Subject Agent of the resource, that is the resource is about them.

In the first example above, the use of the common dcterms:creator property is the equivalent to associating an-indigenous-person with resource-x, indicating a role of Author.

For detailed information about linking resources in metadata to people and groups, including a long list of roles, see the Specification Document's Section on Agents.

3.3 ag using a well-known Indigenous classifier

This can be done by associating a resource with classifier specifically for indicating indigenousness

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

FAIR and CARE

4. Calculate FAIR or CARE scores

One aim of this catalogue profile is to for it to be able to be used with software to automatically calculate FAIR and CARE scores for resources described by metadata. This is so we can calculate scores for large numbers of items.

Use the automated tool

The Metadata Entry Form automatically calculates these scores as you use it, and it details how scores are created too.

The IDN also provides the underlying software to calculate scores from IDN CP metadata: Scores Calculator. If you're technical, you can dive into the weeds of score creation - and please let us know what you think about the methods we have implemented!

The FAIR and CARE principles are widely known and many other tools exist for at least FAIR self-assessment, such as the ARDC's FAIR Data Self Assessment Tool, so you can use these tools alongside the IDN's to cross-check.

5. Improve my catalogue's FAIR or CARE scores

Since the Metadata Entry Form details how its scores are created, you should be able to see what to do to improve your scores. For example, for the A1 part of the Accessibility score of FAIR, if you indicate access using standard terminology such as "Access to metadata", or "Conditional access", you will get some score. If you indicate the most accessible form, "Open access", you will get the best A1 score.

If you want to increase score en masse, perhaps across a whole catalogue, have a look at the calculation functions in the IDN's Scores Calculator software. The function used for the A1 part of the Assessment FAIR score is calculate_a().

6. Express my catalogue's metadata according to the profile but in other formats

You will need to do two things

If you can work out the first part but cannot implement a technical mapping for automated translation, at least describe your understanding of the mapping in prose. The IDN staff may be able to help.

The Mappings Section of the Specification Document describes some mappings from the IDN CP to other models and just note that, since this profile is a profile of DCAT, mappings from DCAT to other metadata models are entirely relevant. for example the W3C's DCAT/ISO mapping.

Some systems use very different metadata formats, not just models.

Tick Cross

7. Validate my metadata

One of the resources within this profile is a validation data file. It can be used with validation tools to automatically check the validition of metadata.

This validator's only able to test for structural and values validation - is the metadata correctly formatted and machine-readable - it can't test for the appropriateness or the goodness of metadata. For that, you will need to try calculating FAIR or CARE scores and compare what you get to your own expectations of your metadata.

8. Examples

Minimal

A dataset resource online with minimal metadata:

For this dataset we have only:

Property Value
Identifier https://data.idnau.org/pid/BSA
Title Briscoe-Smith Archive
Description Historical population data and biographical records
Agent / Role

Gordon Briscoe & Len Smith / Author

Indigenous Australians / Subject Agent

Australian Data Archive / Custodian

It has a simple title, brief description and several Agent (an organisations & people) associated with it. This item is easily understood to be Indigenous - it's about Indigenous Australians - but it's FAIR and CARE scores aren't great: a lot of simple metadata could easily be added.

The machine-readable version of this metadata record is reproduced here in the RDF Turtle format:

PREFIX dcat: <http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat#> PREFIX dcterms:<http://purl.org/dc/terms/> PREFIX droles: <https://linked.data.gov.au/def/data-roles/> PREFIX prov: <http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#> <https://data.idnau.org/pid/BSA> a dcat:Resource ; dcterms:title "Briscoe-Smith Archive" ; dcterms:description "Historical population data and biographical records" ; prov:qualifiedAttribution [ dcat:hadRole droles:author ; prov:agent <https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5477-0874> , "Gordon Briscoe" ; ] , [ dcat:hadRole droles:subjectAgent ; prov:agent <https://data.idnau.org/pid/organisation/8cfcfc08-3cec-40e1-a772-a8860c118c9d> ] , [ dcat:hadRole droles:custodian ; prov:agent <https://linked.data.gov.au/org/ada> ] ; .

Full

A dataset resource with full metadata:

For this dataset we have a detailed metadata record with the following elements:

Property Value
Identifier https://linked.data.gov.au/dataset/asgsed3/ILOC
Type Feature Collection
Title Indigenous Locations within the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Edition 3
Description This is a reference geospatial dataset developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics... This enables the release of Census of Population and Housing data and other data for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in a meaningful way, while balancing confidentiality and statistical requirements. ...
Date Created 2021-10-06
Date Modified 2021-10-06
License Creative Commons BY 4.0
Rights Copyright © Commonwealth of Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics) 2021
Source https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/standards/australian-statistical-geography-standard-asgs-edition-3/jul2021-jun2026/indigenous-structure/indigenous-locations
Spatial Coverage Australia
Temporal Coverage
Started At Time 2021
Ended At Time 2026
Access Address https://linked.data.gov.au/dataset/asgsed3/ILOC
Themes

Indigenous Demographics

Place

About Indigenous Things
Agent/Role

Australian Bureau of Statistics / custodian

Australian Bureau of Statistics / rights holder

Centre of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Statistics / subject agent representatitve

This dataset is provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and is identified by an identifier supplied by them: https://linked.data.gov.au/dataset/asgsed3/ILOC. It's also accessible online at that location.

The machine-readable version of this metadata record is reproduced here in the RDF Turtle format:

PREFIX dcat: <http://www.w3.org/ns/dcat#> PREFIX dcterms:<http://purl.org/dc/terms/> PREFIX idnth: <https://data.idnau.org/pid/vocab/idn-th> PREFIX iso: <http://def.isotc211.org/iso19115/-1/2018/CitationAndResponsiblePartyInformation/code/CI_RoleCode/> PREFIX prov: <http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#> <https://linked.data.gov.au/dataset/asgsed3/ILOC> a dcat:Resource ; dcterms:title "Indigenous Locations within the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Edition 3" ; dcterms:description """This is a reference geospatial dataset developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics... This enables the release of Census of Population and Housing data and other data for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in a meaningful way, while balancing confidentiality and statistical requirements. ..."""@en ; dcterms:created "2021-10-06"^^xsd:date ; dcterms:modified "2023-05-08"^^xsd:date ; dcterms:identifier "ILOC"^^xsd:token ; dcterms:source "https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/standards/australian-statistical-geography-standard-asgs-edition-3/jul2021-jun2026/indigenous-structure/indigenous-locations"^^xsd:anyURI ; dcterms:issued "2021-10-06"^^xsd:date ; dcterms:license <https://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/cc-by4.0> ; dcterms:rights "Copyright © Commonwealth of Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics) 2021" ; dcterms:spatial <https://linked.data.gov.au/dataset/asgsed3/AUS/AUS> ; dcterms:temporal [ prov:endedAtTime "2026"^^xsd:gYear ; prov:startedAtTime "2021"^^xsd:gYear ] ; dcterms:type <http://www.opengis.net/ont/geosparql#FeatureCollection> ; dcterms:accessRights dar:open ; dcat:accessURL "https://linked.data.gov.au/dataset/asgsed3/ILOC"^^xsd:anyURI ; dcat:theme idnth:indigenous-demographics , <https://data.idnau.org/pid/vocab/idn-th/place> , <https://data.idnau.org/pid/vocab/indigeneity/about-indigenous-things> ; prov:qualifiedAttribution [ dcat:hadRole iso:custodian ; prov:agent <https://linked.data.gov.au/org/abs> ] , [ dcat:hadRole iso:rightsHolder ; prov:agent <https://linked.data.gov.au/org/abs> ] , [ dcat:hadRole <https://data.idnau.org/pid/vocab/idn-role-codes/subjectAgentRepresentatitve> ; prov:agent <https://data.idnau.org/pid/orgabs-coatsis> ; ] ; .