TopNode data elements

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TopNode Data Elements       


The data elements currently defined for the BRS TopNode database are
described in what follows. Please send any comments to
[e-mail].

The data elements necessary to fully describe an information resource or
service differ depending how the resource is accessed. As a result,
separate data element templates were created for different resource types
or access methods. We chose having separate templates rather than
attempting to create a universal (and lengthy) template of data elements
that could be applied to any network information resource. By creating
separate templates, only data elements that are relevant to a specific
resource type are present on any given template.

In each template, there is a set of common data elements which can
generally be applied to any resource type (e.g. title, contact person,
etc), followed by a set of elements that are specific to the particular
resource type. Currently, templates (and the corresponding data elements)
have been developed for the following resource types: FTP accessible
resources, resources accessible via terminal emulation (Telnet & TN3270),
e-mail accessible resources (e.g. e-journals and listservers), 
conventional print resources (those concerned with networks and network
information retrieval) and service centers (e.g. NICS, NOCS, supercomputer
centers, etc). Additional templates for other resource types such as WAIS
and Gopher servers are planned. 



*Internal fields - certain fields described below do not originate with the
authors during a registration process, but will need to be included by the
TopNode staff who catalog each information source, or will be fields that
are created automatically by the database application itself for management
purposes. These "internal" elements are marked with an asterisk in the text
below.

-Non-displayed fields - Some of the fields below will not be displayed to
users. These fields are marked with a dash (-).

Note: maximum line length for all fields is 74 characters unless noted
otherwise.

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The following data elements are those which generally can be applied to all
information resource types. Values in parentheses are the BRS load tags for
the element. Note that all fields are not required and some may not be
appropriate for a given resource.
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-*DOCN (..Document-Number:) - An internal document number created by BRS

-*UNIQUE RECORD IDENTIFIER (..ID:) -  TopNode unique record indentifier
created internally. 

-*RECORD COMPLETE/INCOMPLETE (..RC:) - An internal  field which describes
whether the record has been cataloged and is ready to be released.

*RECORD QUALITY (..RQ:) - The quality of records will vary even after
cataloging, based on the amount of information that is available for a
resource. Some records may result from a self registration process and will
not be "cataloged" at all. This field will indicate to users the overall
quality of the record (e.g. High quality, Questionable, etc). The
cataloging staff will assign a quality rating. The exact categorization
scheme has yet to be determined. 

PROTOCOL TYPE/ACCESS METHOD (..Protocol:) - How a resource is accessed.
Currently this field may be one of : Terminal, FTP, E-mail, Print, Service
Center, WAIS, or Gopher. Other types will be added as needed. Specific
elements for each type are discussed below.

LABEL (..Label:) - A field which will be used to label information sources
(e.g. short title)  in various user applications. The maximum length of
this field is 60 characters.

TITLE  (..Title:) - A complete title for the resource (potentially multiple
lines)

AUTHOR (..Author:) - The personal author

CORPORATE AUTHOR (..Corpauthor:) - The corporate author if appropriate.

ORGANIZATION (..Organization:) - Organizational affiliation or organization
supplying the service if appropriate.

RESOURCE LOCATION (..Location:) - City, State, Country

TIME ZONE (..Timezone:) - Time zone relative to GMT

ACCESS TIME RESTRICTIONS (..Accesstime:) - Text field describing when the
resource is not available

KEYWORDS (..Keywords:) - Any keywords which might be applied to the record

SUBJECT HEADINGS (..Subjects:) - Author supplied and from an evolving
TopNode thesaurus

ABSTRACT (..Abstract:) - Description of the information source/resource
(not access information)




The public contact information fields listed below will be displayed to the
users upon request.

PUBLIC CONTACT NAME (..Pubname:)
PUBLIC CONTACT MAILING ADDRESS (..Pubaddress:)
PUBLIC CONTACT PHONE NUMBER (..Pubphone:)
PUBLIC CONTACT FAX NUMBER (..Pubfax:)
PUBLIC CONTACT E-MAIL ADDRESS (..Pubemail:)

Often contacts may not want their names and/or e-mail addresses made
public. The private contact information fields listed below will never be
given to users but will be used as needed by the database maintenance
staff.

-PRIVATE CONTACT NAME (..Privname:)
-PRIVATE CONTACT MAILING ADDRESS (..Privaddress:)
-PRIVATE CONTACT PHONE NUMBER (..Privphone:)
-PRIVATE CONTACT FAX NUMBER (..Privfax:)
-PRIVATE CONTACT E-MAIL ADDRESS (..Privemail:)

Often, the TopNode staff will be responsible for maintaining the database
content. In some cases, however, others may choose to take responsibility
for maintaining certain entries. The following maintainer fields will
indicate who is responsible (and gets the credit) for each record.

MAINTAINER NAME (..Mainname:)
MAINTAINER MAILING ADDRESS (..Mainaddress:)
MAINTAINER PHONE NUMBER (..Mainphone:)
MAINTAINER FAX NUMBER (..Mainfax:)
MAINTAINER E-MAIL ADDRESS (..Mainemail:)


FREQUENCY OF UPDATES/PUBLICATION (..Frequency:) - (irregular, never, #days)
Hopefully this field will allow some automation of the maintenance effort
(e.g. generate a report of entries that are out of date and need follow up,
or mail the author his/her entry when its time to update to verify the
currency of the information). Exact values for this field have not been
determined.

*LAST VERIFIED (..Verified:) - in yymmdd or yyyymmdd format - the last date
the entry was verified by the maintainer

*LAST UPDATED (..Updated:) - date stamped automatically by the database

*CREATION DATE (..Created:) - date stamped automatically by the database


What follows are the additional fields which are required for each specific
resource type. A complete TopNode record is made up of the general fields
listed above and the additonal fields for the specific resource type.


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Additional fields for Type: Terminal resource
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COST/VALIDATION (..Cost:) - text field describing costs or special
validation required to gain access

TERMINAL TYPE (..Terminal:)- One of: Telnet, Telnet/VT100, or TN3270

DOMAIN (CANONICAL) NAME (..Domainname:) - .e.g. ucs.indiana.edu

IP ADDRESS (..IP:) - e.g. 129.79.1.16 

SOCKET/PORT (..Port:) - supplied if other than the default

LOGIN ID (..LoginID:) - if a username is required at login

PASSWORD (..Password:) - any required password

CONNECTION INFORMATION  (..Connectinfo:) - Text describing any addition
information necessary for a connection. Any special logoff instructions
should also be included here as a second paragraph.

LOGIN SCRIPT (..Script:) - to-be-determined script which could be used to
automate the connection. A variety of scripting standards may be included
here.



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Additional fields for Type: anonymous FTP file access (a subset could be
the anonymous FTP site itself (i.e. no specific file information) 
site/directory/files flag?
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*UNIQUE DOCUMENT IDENTIFER (..UDI:) - Any given file available via
anonymous FTP likely resides on more than one server and may be available
in more than one format (e.g. ASCII & Postscript). The current thinking is
that each different form of the file (different sites and different
formats) should be entered into the database as a separate record. The
problem is that users searching the database will receive multiple hits for
the same file. Ultimately the development of a standard unique document
identifier (i.e. the IETF work in this area) will help alleviate this
problem. In the interim, we may try and use this field for this purpose in
the TopNode database so that users can view information about the primary
source file and then look secondary copies. We may, however, choose to only
list a single copy of the file and then have users access Archie to locate
alternate copies.

DOMAIN (CANONICAL) NAME (..Domainname:) - .e.g. ucs.indiana.edu

IP ADDRESS (..IP:) - e.g. 129.79.1.16

LOGIN ID (..LoginID:) - if a username other than ANONYMOUS is required at
login

PASSWORD (..Password:) - any required password

MACHINE/OPERATING SYSTEM (..Opsystem:) - e.g.UNIX, IBM VM, VAX/VMS

FILENAME (..Filename:) - file name 

PATH (..Path:) - full path name to the file

FILE SIZE (..Filesize:) - in bytes

FILE TYPE (..Filetype:) -  document, application, or data  Other types will
likely need to be added.

FILE FORMAT (..Fileformat:) - e.g. postscript, GIF, TIFF, ASCII,
Wordperfect, tar, tar.Z, ZIP, hqx, ...

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (..Requirements:)- text field describing any special
requirements. Probably most appropriate for applications but might be used
to indicate if a special application is required to process a datafile,
etc.


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Additional fields for Type:Service Centers- e.g. NICS, supercomputer
centers, etc
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No additional fields beyond the general fields are required.

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Additional fields for Type: Type: e-mail distribution lists
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INTERNET LIST ADDRESS (..Interlist:)
BITNET LIST ADDRESS (..Bitlist:)
INTERNET SUBSCRIPTION ADDRESS (..Intersubs:)
BITNET SUBSCRIPTION ADDRESS (..Bitsubs:)
SUBSCRIPTION CONVENTION (..Subscribe:) - bitnet "subscribe", plain english
to,...


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Additional fields for Type: Publication/Print
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PUBLISHER (..Publisher:)
PLACE OF PUBLICATION (..Pubplace:) - city and state
PUBLICATION DATE (..Date:)
ISBN (..ISBN:)
ISSN (..ISSN:)
SUBSCRIPTION ADDRESS (..Address:) - for serials
PUBLICATION TYPE (..Pubtype:) - a non-displayed flag which allows books and
serials to be differentiated
COLLATION INFORMATION (..Pagination:)




Below is a sample record complete with the BRS load tags. Note that only
those data elements which are necessary or appropriate have been included. 



.Protocol: Terminal
.Label: CARL
.Title: Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries (CARL)
.Corpauthor: CARL Systems
.Location: Denver, Colorado, USA
.Keywords: 
Internet-accessible library catalog; OPAC; Online Public Access
Catalog; Online bibliographic database; Journal Index
.Abstract:
Internet-accessible card catalog to 50 major libraries at Colorado
and a database of current article information taken from 10,000
multidisciplinary journals.  Articles can be sent directly to you
or your fax machine.  Costs of articles delivery may be varies.
.Pubname: CARL Systems, Inc
.Pubaddress:
3801 East Florida Street
Suite 300
Denver, CO 80210
.Pubphone: 303-758-3030
.Pubfax: 303-758-0606
.Pubemail: [e-mail]
.Privname: Robert Shafer
.Privaddress:
Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries
777 Grant, Suite 304
Denver, CO 80203
.Privphone: 303-758-3030
.Privemail: [e-mail]
/~ Additional fields for Type: Terminal
.Cost: Free
.Terminal: VT100
.Domainname: pac.carl.org
.IP: 192.54.81.128
.Connectinfo: To log off type //exit.