Collection
All about collections
Structure and meaning | Best practice for creating a collection record | Example RIF-CS
Meaning and purpose
Research Data Australia contains descriptions of collections produced by or relevant to Australian researchers.
For the purposes of Research Data Australia, the concept of a collection means an aggregation of physical and/or digital resources which has meaning in a research context. This context includes the research process itself, any resources which support that process, and the linked scholarly communications cycle with its research outputs of publications and published data. Objects from these collections provide context and meaning for each other.
Generally, stand-alone print publication outputs, such as theses, journal articles or books, are not within the scope of the ANDS Collections Registry. However, the following instances would be considered for inclusion:
- where the published material has been integrated into a collection of unpublished items
- where the published material is integral to the use and understanding of other collection materials described in the ANDS Collections Registry
- where the published material is part of a collection where significant value has been added to the collection through markup and hyperlinks.
The kind of collection (collection type) is described by choosing from the following:
- catalogueOrIndex: collection of resource descriptions describing the content of one or more repositories or collective works at the item level.
- collection: compiled content created as separate and independent works and assembled into a collective whole for distribution and use.
- registry: collection of registry objects compiled to support the business of a given community.
- repository: collection of physical or digital objects compiled for information and documentation purposes and/or for storage and safekeeping.
- dataset: collection of physical or digital objects generated by research activities.
Choosing a Collection Type
Complex relationships exist between these collection types, resulting in some overlaps between them. A decision tree is provided to help with choosing a value from the ANDS Collection Type vocabulary (but note that local values for collection type may also be used).
For more information about collection types, see the ANDS guide Defining a collection.
Decision tree
Research domain examples
Descriptions of over 34,000 research collections have been published in Research Data Australia as of February 2012.
Additional information
The date on which metadata describing a collection was last changed in the source system can be recorded. The date on which a collection was accessioned into the source system can be recorded. See Date modified and Date accessioned for more information.
Use in Research Data Australia
Collections are the main focus of Research Data Australia. The collection types are used to support faceted displays that support navigation. Location, citation and rights information support re-use of collections, while descriptions and subjects facilitate discovery supports a rich discovery environment in Research Data Australia.
See Best practice for collection records for more information about creating collection records.
RIF-CS Example
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<registryObjects xmlns="http://ands.org.au/standards/rif-cs/registryObjects" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://ands.org.au/standards/rif-cs/registryObjects http://services.ands.org.au/documentation/rifcs/schema/registryObjects.xsd">
<registryObject group="Central Queensland University">
<key>http://hdl.cqu.edu.au/10018/57921</key>
<originatingSource>http://services.ands.org.au/sandbox/orca/register_my_data</originatingSource>
<collection type="dataset" dateAccessioned="2011-06-16T00:00:00Z">
<identifier type="local">cqu:6924</identifier>
<identifier type="uri">http://hdl.cqu.edu.au/10018/57921</identifier>
<name type="alternative">
<namePart>Coral mapping data of coastal fringing reefs : pilot study.</namePart>
</name>
<name type="primary">
<namePart>Coral community data of coastal fringing reefs : pilot study</namePart>
</name>
<location>
<address>
<electronic type="url">
<value>http://hdl.cqu.edu.au/10018/57921</value>
</electronic>
</address>
</location>
<coverage>
<temporal>
<date type="dateFrom" dateFormat="W3CDTF">2006-11-30T00:00:00Z</date>
<date type="dateTo" dateFormat="W3CDTF">2006-11-01T00:00:00Z</date>
</temporal>
</coverage>
<coverage>
<temporal>
<date type="dateFrom" dateFormat="W3CDTF">2007-02-01T00:00:00Z</date>
<date type="dateTo" dateFormat="W3CDTF">2007-02-28T00:00:00Z</date>
</temporal>
</coverage>
<coverage>
<spatial type="text">Hummock Hill Reef (HHR), located adjacent to Hummock Hill Island (23.99S; 151.48E)</spatial>
</coverage>
<coverage>
<spatial type="text">Stringers Reef (SR), located 1.6 km North of the Rules Beach, beach access track, near the mouth of Baffle Creek (24.48S; 152.03E)</spatial>
</coverage>
<coverage>
<spatial type="gmlKmlPolyCoords">152.030000,-24.480000</spatial>
</coverage>
<coverage>
<spatial type="gmlKmlPolyCoords">151.5484396,-23.9829154 151.4203802,-23.9829154 151.4203802,-24.064447 151.5484396,-24.064447 151.5484396,-23.9829154</spatial>
</coverage>
<relatedObject>
<key>(QCQU)rm337168</key>
<relation type="hasCollector"/>
</relatedObject>
<relatedObject>
<key>(QCQU)rm330044</key>
<relation type="hasCollector"/>
</relatedObject>
<relatedObject>
<key>http://hdl.cqu.edu.au/10018/58925</key>
<relation type="isOutputOf"/>
</relatedObject>
<relatedObject>
<key>http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-511578</key>
<relation type="isManagedBy"/>
</relatedObject>
<subject type="anzsrc-for">039901</subject>
<subject type="anzsrc-for">060205</subject>
<subject type="anzsrc-for">060808</subject>
<subject type="anzsrc-seo">960502</subject>
<description type="rights">Aerial photography. Beach Protection Authority, Urangan to St Lawrence, 1:12,000, 2001 © The State of Queensland</description>
<description type="rights">Collected and derived data. This work is published under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Australia license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/au/deed.en. </description>
<description type="full">The Burnett Mary Regional Group (BMRG) commissioned the Centre for Environmental Management (CEM) to develop a project to rapidly assess and map the local coastal fringing reefs.
Two reefs were selected based on available digital colour aerial photographs supplied by Queensland Environmental Protection Authority (EPA). The first reef, Hummock Hill Reef (HHR), was located adjacent to Hummock Hill Island (23.99S; 151.48E), and the second reef, Stringers Reef (SR), was located 1.6 km North of the Rules Beach, beach access track, near the mouth of Baffle Creek (24.48S; 152.03E). Ground truthing and reef substrate assessments were carried out. Data was then analyzed, mapped and classified into Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
Four transects ranging from 100-350m were laid out in each reef. Two techniques were assessed, a rapid assessment technique where a diver recorded substrate encountered at each 5m interval and calculated percent cover based on how frequently the substrate was encountered throughout the transects and a Point Intercept Method (PIM) where a diver photographed the substrate at every 5m interval. Percent substrate cover was calculated using a visual basic image analysis program (CPCe). The two techniques were compared and discussed.</description>
<relatedInfo type="publication">
<identifier type="uri">http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11852-008-0011-1</identifier>
<notes>Alquezar, R & Boyd, W, 2007, 'Development of rapid, cost effective coral survey techniques: tools for management and conservation planning', Journal of Coastal Conservation, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 105-119, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11852-008-0011-1</notes>
</relatedInfo>
<relatedInfo type="publication">
<identifier type="uri">http://hdl.cqu.edu.au/10018/57905</identifier>
<notes>Alquezar, R, Boyd, W & Bunce, A 2007. Coral community extent and mapping of coastal fringing reefs: field validation techniques. A report to the Burnett Mary Regional Group. Centre for Environmental Management, Central Queensland University, Gladstone Queensland, http://hdl.cqu.edu.au/10018/57905</notes>
</relatedInfo>
<citationInfo>
<fullCitation style="Harvard">Alquezar, R & Boyd, W 2010, Coral community data of coastal fringing reefs : pilot study, research dataset, Centre for Environmental Management, Central Queensland University, Gladstone, Queensland, http://hdl.cqu.edu.au/10018/57921</fullCitation>
</citationInfo>
</collection>
</registryObject>
</registryObjects>
| Date | Change history |
| April 2010 | Consultation draft |
| 26 Oct 2010 | First web publication. No changes |
| 1 Nov 2010 | Clarification of when published material may be included as part of collections in the ANDS Collections Registry |
| 21 Nov 2011 | Simplified expression, added links to citation and rights elements |
| 1 Feb 2012 | Added RIF-CS example, links to collection best practice page |
Please send any feedback on this page to guides@ands.org.au
