Materials and relations

Hi Andy,

I would like to suggest two changes to your VRA schema.

1. I would like to change the material class to a material property. We
discussed this before, specifically using a URI for material, but I had
forgotten that material has qualifiers. However from the examples in the VRA
spec I don't think there is any relationship between the qualified values.
Here are the details from the spec:

MATERIAL
Qualifiers: Material.Medium, Material.Support
Description: The substance of which a work or an image is composed.
Examples:

Title = This is how it happened
Material.Medium = ink
Material.Support = paper

Title = Standing Buddha
Material.Medium = bronze

Title = Frederick C. Robie House dining chair
Material. Medium = oak
Material.Medium = leather

Type = gelatin silver print
Title = interior view of Frederic C. Robie House dinning room with
furnishings
Material.Medium = gelatin
Material.Medium = silver
Material.Support = photo paper

2. I'm also suggesting changing relation to a class rather than a property
because if the qualifiers are used, there is a relationship between the
qualifiers as the examples demonstrate - it seems that type can be "part
of", "derived from" or "source for". 

RELATION 
Qualifiers: Relation.Identity, Relation.Type
Description:  Terms or phrases describing the identity of the related work
and the relationship between the Work being cataloged and the related work.
Note: If the relationship is essential (i.e. when the described work
includes the referenced works, either physically or logically within a
larger or smaller context), use the Title.Larger Entity element.
Examples:

Description = This is how it happened is No. 47 (33) from the series "The
Disasters of War", 4th edition, plates for the series ca. 1810-14, 1820, 4th
edition was published 1906.
Relation.Part of = Part of Disasters of war

Title = Frederick C. Robie House dining chair
Relation.Part of = Frederic C. Robie House

Title =  Triumphal arch for Charles V
Relation.derived from = Arch of Titus, Rome (ITA)
Relation.derived from = Sebastiano Serlio, Libro d'architettura, Book III
(1537)
Relation.derived from = Sebastiano Serlio, Libro d'architettura, Book IV
(1540)
Relation.source for = Triumphal Arch of Maximillian II (1570)
Relation.source for = Triumphal Arch of  Emperor Matthias (1612)

Subject =  triumphal arch of Charles V in Nuremberg
Relation.derived from = Drawing by Georg Pencz in the Staatsarchive,
Nuremberg, Germany

Are these changes acceptable?

thanks

Dr Mark H. Butler
Research Scientist                HP Labs Bristol
mark-h_butler@hp.com
Internet: http://www-uk.hpl.hp.com/people/marbut/

Received on Thursday, 23 October 2003 13:11:47 UTC