Using Controlled Vocabularies to Manage Resource Relationships: The KMODDL Experience

Abstract

The Kinematic Models for Design Digital Library (KMODDL) exemplifies digital collections in which groups of objects are versions of the same resource and which resources are related to one another taxonomically. Other objects in the collection are supplementary materials that explicitly cite the primary KMODDL resources. To manage the complex relationships among KMODDL objects while maintaining the DC one-to-one principle, metadata developers established controlled vocabulary encoding schemes that linked related objects. The solution implemented enables users to find all versions of a resource and all supplementary materials that cite the resource in a single search.