Common Metadata to Search for Non-digital Cultural Resources in Heterogeneous Databases

In this paper, we discuss cross-search for information of non-digital cultural resources maintained by different databases of separate organizations. We assume the cross-search is realized by converting the original fields of each databases to common metadata. The Dublin Core Metadata Element Set is often used for describing and retrieving digital resources on the Internet. But it is not necessarily suitable for non-digital resources, because Dublin Core cannot describe the physical features of resources. We proposes another small set of metadata elements whose number is approximately equal to that of Dublin Core and which can be mechanically mapped to from the original databases. The crosswalk to Dublin Core and usefulness of this new element set are also discussed.