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2008-07-03 From David Snyder <dsnyder@ASCD.ORG> on dc-education
Subject: Help with refinements

    Very glad to join this list.  I am developing an
    education-focused metadat a application profile, with the
    foundation of Dublin Core and the addition of several local
    elements.  I'm finding the discussions, particularly regardi
    ng Audience vocabulary, to be very relevant to the work I'm
    doing.

    In developing local elements, to be intermingled with DC
    elements, I'm running up against the question of whether to
    create elements or refinements - both in the case of a local
    element and its local refinement, and a local refinement to
    a DC element.

     From DC documentation on refinements, I understand that the
     refinements provide a more specific or narrow meaning,
    should act as an 'adjective' to the element's 'noun', and
    don't expand the scope of the element - and that the "dumb
    down principle" means a value of a refinement should make
    sense if someone simply sees the value as that of the
    refinement's parent element.

    What I'm grappling with is how this plays out in actual,
    real-world applications.  For example, take the DC element
    Date and the various refinements - Date published, Date
    approved, etc.  If the metadata for a resource had
    <dcterms.dateapproved>2000-04-01</dcterms.dateapproved>, for
    example, how precisely would a system that did not recognize
    this refinement know to roll up the value to Date?

    Furthermore, what is the function of element refinements in
    a closed local system which the metadata creator controls
    (in other words, no need to 'dumb down' since all work is
    happening in one place) - if any - versus simply having
    separate elements?  Does having this hierarchical
    relationship among elements/refinements serve any purpose?