The application of an event-aware metadata model to an online oral history archive

In this paper we test the ABC event-aware metadata model, developed within the Harmony project, by applying it to a complex multimedia oral history archive. Based on a metadata schema, generated using the ABC model, we developed indexing tools, a database and a search and browse Web interface, for an oral history collection consisting of audio tapes and posters generated from a series of interviews and photographs. The objective was to build a testbed to test and refine the ABC model and also to demonstrate that use of the model will ensure consistent, well-structured, unambiguous metadata descriptions for complex multimedia collections. Such descriptions will hopefully lead to improved fine-grained resource discovery, interoperability between different metadata schemes and explicit tracking of intellectual property rights.