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Providing a baseline for a new metadata scheme for European NAPs

Metadata schemes describe the structure, vocabularies and rules how to handle metadata in digital repositories. One specific metadata schema is being prepared by NAPCORE Sub-Working Group (SWG) 4.4

The goal is to develop a specification in the domain of National Access Points (NAPs). This is a machine-readable scheme of an agreed, Europe-wide metadata set, to be applied at any NAP, or even at any transportation-related data portal in general. The working title for this specification is “napDCAT-AP”.

See more details of this SWG on: https://napcore.eu/metadata/

Since this is a brand-new specification, some upfront questions were raised by the SWG, for example:

  • What should this specification serve?
  • How should it look like? 
  • What external frameworks should be considered?

To answer these questions, and to set the baseline of napDCAT-AP, partners of SWG 4.4 have recently provided three deliverables:

These deliverables serve as a preparatory work for the upcoming napDCAT-AP elaboration. They include the identification and prioritization of requirements to be addressed, any guidelines and best practices to be considered, and a concrete approach to be followed. 

These outcomes will be considered by follow-up works of the SWG, namely the preparation and development of the napDCAT-AP data model and documentation.

We also feel that some higher-level concepts, in particular the “roadmap” above, are a suitable orientation for any metadata specifications. In total, the above documents might be of interest for any experts and stakeholders about metadata specifications, within or outside the NAP domain.

We will inform you on the progress on this website.

For questions or inquiries about the napDCAT-AP approach, please contact SWG 4.4 leader Peter Lubrich (lubrich@bast.de).