Metadata Default Locale ★★★★
Metadata may be captured in different languages in different locations. For users, it is important that the language of the metadata be known. MD_Metadata.defaultLocale provide a way to record the primary language of the metadata.
Element Name | defaultLocale |
Parent | MD_Metadata |
Class/Type | PT_Locale |
Governance | Common ICSM |
Purpose | Discovery, Data Management |
Audience | machine resource - ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ |
general - ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ | |
resource manager - ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ | |
specialist - ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ | |
Metadata type | Discovery |
ICSM Level of Agreement | ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ |
Definition
Language and character set used for documenting metadata.
ISO Obligation
- There can be one and only one [1..1] defaultLocale entries for the cited resource in the MD_Metadata package in the metadata record of class PT_Locale.
Discussion
There may be only one default locale identified in one metadata record. This element only describes the default language of the metadata. Any language elements used in the described spatial resource may have a different default language and would be captured in the element MD_Identification.defaultLocale The element “otherLocale” can be used to provide information about alternatively used localised character strings.
ICSM Best Practice Recommendations
Therefore - in order to provide metadata in a consistent manner for the users in our region, it is recommended that English be chosen as the value for language
using the ISO 639-2, 3-alphabetic digits code “eng”.
Recommended Sub-Elements
Follow the general guidance for class - PT_Locale
Recommended Sibling Elements -
- otherLocale - [class - PT_Locale] [0..*] when a metadata record has information in additional languages
Also Consider
- MD_Metadata.otherLocale - (codelist - PT_Locale) [0..*] provides information about alternatively used localised character strings provides information about alternatively used localised character strings
- MD_DataIdentification.defaultLocale (codelist - PT_Locale) [0..1] contains the language and character set used within the resource, such as map labels or other text.
- MD_DataIdentification.otherLocale - (codelist - PT_Locale) [0..*] alternate localised language(s) and character set (s) used within the resource
Crosswalk considerations
ISO19139
MD_Metadata/language moved to MD_Metadata/defaultLocale:PT_Locale - Make use of the newly added Language and character set localization package for defining local language and character set.
Dublin core / CKAN / data.gov.au
Maps to language
CKAN has one field for language that maps to both Metadata and Resource language fields. ISO 19115 recommends 639-2 3 letter codes. Data.gov.au recommends IETF RFC4646 2 letter codes as primary. See https://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/faq.html#6 for discussion of the differences
DCAT
Maps to dct.language
RIF-CS
No identified mapping
Examples
XML -
<mdb:MD_Metadata>
....
<mdb:defaultLocale>
<lan:PT_Locale id="EN">
<lan:language>
<lan:LanguageCode
codeList="http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/"
codeListValue="eng"/>
</lan:language>
<lan:characterEncoding>
<lan:MD_CharacterSetCode
codeList="https://schemas.isotc211.org/19115/resources/Codelist/cat
/codelists.xml#MD_CharacterSetCode" codeListValue="utf8"/>
</lan:characterEncoding>
</lan:PT_Locale>
</mdb:defaultLocale>
....
</mdb:MD_Metadata>
\pagebreak
UML diagrams
Recommended elements highlighted in yellow
\pagebreak