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VRA Core4 Intro

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54 views

VRA Core4 Intro

Uploaded by

Mariel Morales
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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You are on page 1/ 2

AN INTRODUCTION TO VRA CORE

Purpose/Role of VRA Core


VRA Core is a data standard for the description of works of visual culture as well as the images that
document them. Works of visual culture can include objects or events such as paintings, drawings,
sculpture, architecture, photographs, as well as book, decorative, and performance art. It is an
internationally recognized metadata standard that is used both as a standalone format, and as an
approved extension schema to METS for objects that contain cultural heritage resources. 1

History and Adoption of VRA Core


VRA Core was first developed in 1996. The current version 4.0, that was released in 2007, is expressed as
an XML schema in order to support the interoperability and exchange of VRA Core records.

Today, the data standard is widely used throughout the globe by art and architecture schools, libraries,
museums, archives and organizations that need to manage information about and provide access to
cultural heritage works and their images. The Implementation Registry is a select list of some of the
institutions that have adopted VRA Core.

Data Model
There are 3 primary entities in the VRA Core 4.0 data model: collection, work, and image. The primary
focus of description in VRA Core is the work record which can then be affiliated with one or more images
via the Relation element. By the same token, a single image can relate to one or more works when for
example a documentary image is taken of an exhibition and that image portrays multiple works. A
collection record can be used to aggregate multiple work or multiple image records.

Work
1-to-many

1-to-many
Collection
1-to-many

1-to-many
Image

1
VRA Core 4.0 documentation and schemas - Copyright (c) 2007 Visual Resources Association (VRA). Licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. The standard is hosted by the Network Development and
MARC Standards Office of the Library of Congress (LC) in partnership with the Visual Resources Association. It is
developed and managed by the VRA Core Oversight Committee. Inquiries can be made to [email protected].

10/28/2014 VRA Core 4.0 Introduction Page 1 of 2


Elements, Sub-elements and Attributes
An element in Core 4.0 is unit of metadata and is the equivalent of a field in a database (e.g. agent).
Some elements contain sub-elements which are parent:child hierarchical relationships (e.g.
agent:dates). Attributes further qualify the information in the elements and sub-elements
(agent:dates:type). VRA Core contains 19 elements, namely record type (collection/work/image), agent,
culturalContext, date, description, inscription, location, material, measurements, relation, rights, source,
stateEdition, stylePeriod, subject, technique, textref, title, and worktype. In addition, there are 9 global
attributes which can be used to qualify any element or sub-element. They include: dataDate, extent,
href, pref (preferred value), refid (link to internal identifiers), rules, source, vocab, xml:lang. For more
details see supporting document VRA Core 4.0 Element Outline.

Schemas
Version 4.0 has both a restricted and unrestricted schema. The unrestricted schema imposes no
requirements on the values entered into any of the elements, sub-elements, or attributes, and may be
useful for those who want to exchange legacy data. The restricted schema imposes requirements on the
data values entered into the type attributes (see supporting document Restricted Schema Type Values
for a list of allowed values and their definitions.) The restricted version may be more appropriate for
those wishing to aggregate VRA Core data from multiple sources into a common repository or shared
cataloging environment.

Display and Indexing


VRA Core 4.0 was designed to accommodate both display of data for human consumption and indexing
and retrieval of data via computers. To this end, it allows for two additional units of metadata - display
and notes. These display elements, along with one or more index values contained within the element
tags, are nested within an outer “wrapper" known as a set. For example, the MATERIAL set would be
encoded as follows:

<materialSet>
<display>oil on canvas</display>
<notes source="Art Bulletin, v.87, no. 1 (March 2005)">Medium originally thought to
be tempera. Oil medium discovered in tests at Uffizi in 2003</notes>

<material type="medium" vocab="AAT" refid="300015050">oil paint</material>


<material type="support" vocab="AAT" refid="300014078">canvas</material>
</materialSet>

For more Information


The official schemas and documentation can be found at
http://www.loc.gov/standards/vracore/schemas.html and user support materials at
http://core.vraweb.org/. A VRACORE listserv has been established so that the community can ask
questions and share knowledge http://listserv.loc.gov/listarch/vracore.html.

10/28/2014 VRA Core 4.0 Introduction Page 2 of 2

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