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Metadata plays a crucial role in a digital library/museum environment. However, the development of metadata is not an easy task. Its formulation starts with analysing the attributes of collections as well as understanding the user information needs and information seeking behaviour. The issue of interoperability also needs to be considered in terms of both semantics and syntax. This paper discusses issues related to the development of metadata in Taiwan. It describes the development process of a Chinese metadata system, Metadata Interchange for Chinese Information (MICI), and an XML/metadata management system, Metalogy. Both were developed under the Digital Museum Initiative sponsored by the National Science Council of Taiwan.

The study aims to investigate, through mapping analysis, the operation of knowledge organization systems (KOS) in different languages (English and Chinese), the types of term equivalence and the degree of similarity between different conceptual structures, and issues related thereto.

Terms are selected from the Art & Architecture Thesaurus developed by Getty Research Institute in the USA (source language) and the National Palace Museum in Taiwan participating in Taiwan e‐Learning and Digital Archives Program (target language). In respect of data analysis, mapping analysis and content analysis are both adopted.

Among the six types of term equivalence, “exact equivalence” appears most frequently. The degree of similarity between different conceptual structures can be divided into four types: similar structure, transferring part of the structure of source language into the system of target language by modeling; similar structure, but the structure of source language needs to be expanded or revised; dissimilar structure, the term in target language can be partially mapped to the term in source language; lack of structure, no matches between target language and source language.

The next step is to develop a more comprehensive conceptual structure that can incorporate multicultural perspectives. If the “partial equivalence” terms are further identified as important concepts, the problems of non‐exact equivalence terms and dissimilar conceptual structures can be solved by addressing the needs of English users in searching for Chinese art collections.

The study serves as a pilot study applicable to the development of multilingual KOS in the domain of Chinese fine arts, building the first demonstration model for the interoperability of KOS in Chinese and English.

In January 2002, the National Science Council of Taiwan launched a National Digital Archives Program (NDAP) and has proceeded with the implementation of a system related to the open archives initiative (OAI) framework. This paper aims to introduce the protocol and the prototype system of the project.

A general review of the project.

The OAI interoperability framework has received much attention from scholars of library and information sciences. In Europe and North America, many academic organizations and universities have undertaken theoretical studies, system design, and implementation of the OAI framework. In January 2002, the National Science Council of Taiwan launched a NDAP, and the institutional project of the National Taiwan University is one of its institutional projects. Now, the project has proceeded with the implementation of a system related to the OAI framework.

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