raydAtLC
commented
9 years ago Whether a display label is a good thing or not in general seems to be a controversial topic, but restricting the question to MODS ….
My first observation is that displayLabel is way overused and even abused in MODS.
I would say, as a general rule:
· If a property has a range of literal (string), displayLabel is unnecessary and costly; you would need to create a blank node to accommodate it. And the literal should serve as the display label anyway.
· Similarly for a property with range of rdf:resource. For example, consider
There would be no need to create a blank node to accommodate a displayLabel, and in fact, if you follow the link you get a madsrdf record that has a label in it.
· For a property whose object is structured (to be represented as a blank node), there is probably little cost to adding a displayLabel if it is useful, because adding it would not cause you to have to create a blank node where one does not already exist.
However in the third case, I can find little or nothing in MODS that fits, though some at first glance may seem to. For example look at
<xs:element name="abstract" type="abstractDefinition"/>
<!-- -->
<xs:complexType name="abstractDefinition">
<xs:simpleContent>
<xs:extension base="stringPlusLanguage">
<xs:attribute name="displayLabel" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:attribute name="type" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:attributeGroup ref="xlink:simpleLink"/>
<xs:attribute name="shareable" fixed="no"/>
<xs:attribute name="altRepGroup" type="xs:string"/>
<xs:attributeGroup ref="altFormatAttributeGroup"/>
</xs:extension>
<!-- -->
<!-- altFormat new in version 3.5 -->
</xs:simpleContent>
</xs:complexType>So it may seem at first glance that there are so many pieces of information to represent – type, shareable, etc. – that adding displayLabel is no big deal. But most likely none of that information should be retained in MODS RDF, and so, neither should displayLabel.
One more point. You note that displayLable seems to be used: ‘not only to display information but also to "define" an element further, for example relatedItem type="otherFormat" displayLabel="Print version” ’
And actually, this case you cite is a gross abuse of displayLabel, it is a cludge that some use to try to indicate a specific type of relatedItem because that type is not in the controlled list. This is being corrected in version 3.6, by the addition of ‘otherType’.
Ray
From: melanieWacker [mailto:notifications@github.com] Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2014 3:30 PM To: blunalucero/MODS-RDF Subject: [MODS-RDF] Attribute: displayLabel (#21)
One of the attributes used throughout MODS XML is displayLabel. Definition: This attribute provides additional text associated with the element if needed for display purposes. The preferred text with its capitalization should be included, but not delimiters such as colons. See examples here: http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/userguide/generalapp.html#list I was searching for examples on the Web it seems to be heavily used not only to display information but also to "define" an element further, for example relatedItem type="otherFormat" displayLabel="Print version" Does any of this information need to be carried over?
— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/blunalucero/MODS-RDF/issues/21.
melanieWacker
One of the attributes used throughout MODS XML is displayLabel. Definition: This attribute provides additional text associated with the element if needed for display purposes. The preferred text with its capitalization should be included, but not delimiters such as colons. See examples here: http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/userguide/generalapp.html#list I was searching for examples on the Web it seems to be heavily used not only to display information but also to "define" an element further, for example relatedItem type="otherFormat" displayLabel="Print version" Does any of this information need to be carried over?