Metadata Schemes for Rubbings Description: A Comparative Study

Abstract Rubbings are of high value for preserving and disseminating culture and civilizations and for humanities and scientific research. Describing and cataloging rubbings affects the way we use them and in turn, affects resource discovery. This article aims to study various rubbings metadata schemes worldwide to investigate the common ground and differences between rubbing descriptions. This study adopts a qualitative comparative research method. A comparative guide with structural, functional, and cultural factors, the Relationship Model of Chinese Rubbings, and a six-category typology of metadata were used to compare seven metadata schemes. At last, a Chinese rubbing case and a brass rubbing case were used to examine and understand the scope of the schemes. The result shows the institutional, regional, and cultural differences including the different purposes of the schemes and substantial differences in the numbers of fields, structures, coverages, and granularities. It also shows the common features of the schemes, especially in resource linking. When using a scheme to describe different types of rubbings, information loss or overfit of the schemes may occur.