Lessons Learned from EIAH Metadata Application Profile (EMAP)

The EIAH Metadata Application Profile (EMAP) has been designed to meet Encyclopedia of Iranian Architectural History (EIAH) needs regarding the organization of architectural resources. The application profile should satisfy community needs and should respect existing conventions; architects may think differently from archivists or museum curators. The key issues in the design process have been addressed here; namely, compliance with the special needs of EIAH data architecture, interoperability, compliance with Persian language and localization, as well as simplicity, critical because of the wide range of non-cataloger users of the system. The EMAP has been designed based on Dublin Core; six element refinements have been defined for the Dublin Core element “subject” to facilitate the interconnection of resources to entities in the EIAH ontology. In particular, human readable documentation guidelines have been emphasized as an important factor in metadata quality. Metadata crosswalks have also been defined with major standards of the domain to improve interoperability.