ePUB metadata

[llasram]

Originally Posted by Jellby

And what about an author's alternative names (pseudonyms, real name...)? Is there any field/way to store them?

For instance, I would put "Mark Twain" as a creator with role="aut" and file-as="Twain, Mark"... but where could I put "Samuel Langhorne Clemens", his real name?

Ooh. Tricky. The full list of MARC relator codes has one that look promising:

Attributed name [att]
Use for an author, artist, etc., relating him/her to a work for which there is or once was substantial authority for designating that person as author, creator, etc. of the work.

I'd probably go with an @role="aut" of "Mark Twain" and an @role="att" of "Samual Clemens" but I have no formal experience in how the MARC codes are used.

[Hadrien]

There's also a shorter list in the EPUB specs: http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf/OPF_2.0...l#Section2.2.6

[llasram]

Originally Posted by Hadrien

There's also a shorter list in the EPUB specs: http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf/OPF_2.0...l#Section2.2.6

Indeed, but the short list does not contain "att" .

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Jellby

And what about an author's alternative names (pseudonyms, real name...)? Is there any field/way to store them?

For instance, I would put "Mark Twain" as a creator with role="aut" and file-as="Twain, Mark"... but where could I put "Samuel Langhorne Clemens", his real name?

Does this kind of information really belong in a book? What happens when an author adds a new psedonym? What happens when an author change his name? And so on. Would it not be better to have a pointer from the book to the current information about the author?

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Besides, can a given dc:creator element have more than one opf:role attribute?

I've been trying to find something about this, but I couldn't find anything. Nowhere I've seen it stated that only one opf:role is allowed or thar multiple opf:role are possible.

Usually, each dc:creator would have only one opf:role, but I guess one would desire to have several in cases where, for example, the author also drew (some of) the illustrations, or an author translated his/her own work, or the translator added extensive notes and comments...

So, does anyone have more information about this possibility?

[EDIT]: Damn! I clicked "edit" instead of "quote"... I intended to quote my own previous post, but ended up editing (and deleting) it... at least the quoted part still survives (and it's the most important).

[Jellby]

just a pump, since I failed to add a post... (please read again the one above.)

[llasram]

Originally Posted by Jellby

I've been trying to find something about this, but I couldn't find anything. Nowhere I've seen it stated that only one opf:role is allowed or thar multiple opf:role are possible.

Basic XML rules are that all attribute names for a particular element are unique. However, what you could do is just have multiple <dc:creator/> (or <dc:contributor/>) tags with the same content and different @opf:role values.

Oh, and I missed your note about @opf:role="att". I think you may be right, but the phrasing of "there is or once was substantial authority" makes it unclear. Consider a book such as the Rhetorica ad Herennium which was attributed to Cicero, and let's say that we discover definitively that it was actually by Cannutius. The book was "published" by the name "Cicero," but was actually by someone names "Cannutius." What you're proposing is that the @role="aut" is "Cannutius" and @role="att" is "Cicero". But if you do the same thing for Huckleberry Finn then you should have your @role="aut" be "Samuel Clemens" and your @rol="att" be "Mark Twain".

If you wanted to be really specific, you could use the @dcterms:coverage property with @role="att" to specify different time periods of attribution by "substantial authority."

-Marshall

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by llasram

What you're proposing is that the @role="aut" is "Cannutius" and @role="att" is "Cicero". But if you do the same thing for Huckleberry Finn then you should have your @role="aut" be "Samuel Clemens" and your @rol="att" be "Mark Twain".

Yes, from the specification that's what I think should be done in the first case. The difference is Cicero and Cannutius are (I assume[*]) two different people, while Mark Twain and Samuel Clemens are the same single person (just as "Twain, Mark", in a opf:file-as attribute, is the same person).

So, I guess having two different dc:creator elements for Cicero and Cannutius is all right, but having two for Mark Twain and Samuel Clemens is not practical, there's no way of knowing/marking they are the same person.

For the case of several opf:role for a single author, the reading systems could "merge" multiple dc:creator (each one with a single opf:role) if they have the same opf:file-as... I wonder if any system does this or if any developer will think of this.

[*] It would be different if we discover, instead, that the person we know as Cicero was actually named Cannutius.

[Hadrien]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Yes, from the specification that's what I think should be done in the first case. The difference is Cicero and Cannutius are (I assume[*]) two different people, while Mark Twain and Samuel Clemens are the same single person (just as "Twain, Mark", in a opf:file-as attribute, is the same person).

So, I guess having two different dc:creator elements for Cicero and Cannutius is all right, but having two for Mark Twain and Samuel Clemens is not practical, there's no way of knowing/marking they are the same person.

For the case of several opf:role for a single author, the reading systems could "merge" multiple dc:creator (each one with a single opf:role) if they have the same opf:file-as... I wonder if any system does this or if any developer will think of this.

[*] It would be different if we discover, instead, that the person we know as Cicero was actually named Cannutius.

You'll probably need another controlled vocabulary to do this. FOAF (http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/) is the most commonly used vocabulary in the semantic web community to describe people.

[Chang]

Originally Posted by Jellby

And what about an author's alternative names (pseudonyms, real name...)? Is there any field/way to store them?

For instance, I would put "Mark Twain" as a creator with role="aut" and file-as="Twain, Mark"... but where could I put "Samuel Langhorne Clemens", his real name?

I'm just curious where these attributes come in handy. It's not compulsory to use these according to OPF specs. This thread is one year old already but has something changed for nowadays? Does some reading devices pick up info from the attributes and show it for the user e.g. pseydonyms of the author?
To sum up, is there any practical reason to use these attributes?

[quillaja]

If Samuel Clemens wrote the book, his name would be on it. But it's not. "Mark Twain" wrote the book, whether he's a real person or not. That we know they are the same person is immaterial to the book.

[Chang]

I'm sorry but I don't quite get your point.

Originally Posted by quillaja

If Samuel Clemens wrote the book, his name would be on it.

Would be on what/where?

And I would still like to know is there any practical reason to use these attributes? Does the regular user get any info from the attributes or is it just for people who unzip epub files?

[Chang]

bump
Anyone?

[rogue_ronin]

By definition, metadata is outside the document as you might read it (although it might be included.) So, usefulness depends on the reader software. The standardized Dublin Core metadata would be available for whatever system might want it, although most readers fail to make much use of it.

Of course, as it's machine readable, it can be used for a lot of purposes besides reading.

Don't mistake the current level of exploitation as the ceiling of what is possible. It's always good to add good metadata and clean markup. Future-you, and others, will appreciate it.

m a r