Abstract

REPEATABLE MULTILINGUAL

MODS Element name: <physicalDescription><form>

Short definition: A designation of a particular physical presentation of a resource, including the physical form or medium of material for a resource.

Input guidelines: Characterize the form of the digitized or analog original using terms describing the material, support, or technique. Use authority control, e.g. AATTGMLCGFT or locally controlled vocabularies. This field/element set is not used to describe the content of a resource. Use the Genre and/or Type of Resource elements to describe the content of the resource. If you do not use a controlled vocabulary, check the Type facet on the Collections portal to avoid spelling variants for uncontrolled terms.

Definition

A designation of a particular physical presentation of a resource, including the physical form or medium of material for a resource.

DAMS input form fields

Form(s)/Medium(s)

DAMS form field nameform field typerequiredMODS elementCollections Portal displaynotes
Form/Medium Termtext fieldnophysicalDescription/formType*

The values entered as Form/Medium terms are merged with metadata values for Genre and Type of Resource for display on the Collections portal.



If you do not use a controlled vocabulary, check the Type facet on the Collections portal to avoid spelling variants for uncontrolled terms.




(F/M Term) Authority

dropdown selection

  • (empty/none)
  • aat
  • gmgpc
  • lcgft
  • local
no

physicalDescription/form[@authority]

(attribute of form)

N/A

Authority control for names is strongly recommended. Consult one of the following if applicable:

Follow your unit/collection guidelines.

(F/M Term) Authority URItext fieldsee note

physicalDescription/form[@authorityURI]

(attribute of form)

N/A

When using a local authority file, provide a URI that identifies the file. The URI should identify the authority file as a whole, not to a specific entry.

If you selected "aat", "gmgpc" or "lcgft" in the Authority form field, leave the field blank. The DAMS will automatically add URIs for these authority files.

Language of Form/Medium Termtext fieldno

physicalDescription/form[@lang]

(attribute of form)

N/A

Enter ISO-639-2 language code (3 letters).

MODS Element description

Element <physicalDescription>

http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/userguide/physicaldescription.html

Guidelines for use

<physicalDescription> is a container element that contains all subelements relating to physical description information of the resource. Data is input only within each subelement.

Attributes

Currently no attributes for <physicalDescription> are implemented in the DAMS.

Subelements

The following subelements of name are used in the DAMS:

  • form
  • (extent)
  • (internetMediaType)

Subelement <physicalDescription><form>

Guidelines for use

Characterize the form of the digitized or analog original using terms describing the material, support, or technique. Use authority control AATTGMLCGFT or locally controlled vocabularies. This field/element set is not used to describe the content of a resource. Use the Genre and/or Type of Resource elements to describe the content of the resource. If you do not use a controlled vocabulary, check the Type facet on the Collections portal to avoid spelling variants for uncontrolled terms.

Attributes

Attribute name

Details

XPath syntax examples

authority

values:

  • aat
  • gmgpc
  • lcgft
  • local

Authority control for names is strongly recommended. Consult one of the following if applicable:

Follow your unit/collection guidelines.

physicalDescription/form[@authority="aat"]
authorityURI

values:

When using a local authority file, provide a URI that identifies the file. The URI should identify the authority file as a whole, not to a specific entry.

physicalDescription/form[@authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/genreForms"]
lang

values:

Enter ISO-639-2 language code (3 letters).

physicalDescription/form[@lang="eng"]

Subelements

No subelements for extent.

XML Examples

<physicalDescription>
	<form authority="aat" authorityURI="http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/" lang="eng">blueline prints</form>
</physicalDescription

Mappings

Dublin Core

Depending on the direction of mapping necessary, check

The following specific guidelines apply for the DAMS:

Dublin Core fieldMapping conditionMODS elementNotes
dc:format
form

Approximate mapping.

Depending on the exact content, dc:format might also map to MODS elements internetMediaType or extent.

MARC 21

see http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/mods-mapping.html#physicaldescription. The following specific guidelines apply for the DAMS:

MARC 21 fieldMapping conditionMODS elementNotes
*
form*The values suggested by the LoC's standard mapping for MODS form[@authority] attributes (marcform, marccategory, marcsmd) are currently not supported for manual ingest into the DAMS. Choose one of the suggested vocabularies for authority-controlled terms.
655
formLook for form terms in MARC field 655. This MARC field can also contain genre information, which should be mapped to DAMS MODS field <genre>.

Solr

In general, all MODS metadata is imported into the DAMS Solr server upon ingest. The ingest process generates Solr fields typically named according to the following schema:

mods_value*_suffix

where

  • value* can be one or multiple element, subelement or attribute names that allow to distinguish Solr fields
  • suffix is s, t, ss, ms or mt, which refers to the type of data stored in a Solr field and how it is indexed. The Solr index usually contains multiple copies of each field with the same content, distinguished by their suffix.

The following table shows mappings between MODS elements and Solr fields for those fields that are currently used for display in the Collections portal, or where additional processing happens in Islandora or during the publishing process. Suffixes are ignored, unless relevant for the mapping.

MODS elementMapping conditionSolr DAMSSolr Collections PortalNotes
form

mods_type_consolidated_ms

mods_type_consolidated_msThe value for Form/Medium is merged with metadata values for Genre and Type of Resource for display on the Collections portal (label "Type").
form
mods_type_consolidated_msdisplay_type_ms

The value for Form/Medium is merged with metadata values for Genre and Type of Resource for display on the Collections portal (label "Type").

The Solr field display_type_ms is generated from mods_type_consolidated_ms upon publishing, to feed the "Type" facet on the Collections portal start page. The first letter of each word is capitalized.