Evaluating metadata schema for murals and stone cave temples: Towards digitizing cultural heritage

Abstract

Despite efforts and attempts on preserving cultural heritages around the world, few studies have been conducted on metadata schema of murals and stone cave temples which are often high value heritages dating from ancient times. The literature is also scarce in user-centered evaluation of metadata schema of this kind. This study therefore aims to offer insights on developing and evaluating a drafted metadata schema for digitizing and preserving historic murals and stone cave temples. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 scholars and professionals whose work was related to murals and stone cave temples. A coding framework was designed to analyze the interview transcripts. Initial findings show that users' seeking behaviors for cultural heritage information corroborated with their perceived importance of specific metadata elements. The coding schema developed in this study can serve as a framework for follow-up evaluations of metadata schemas of this kind, contributing to the ongoing development of cultural heritage metadata.