The CDWA-Lite XML schema was created by three organizations to describe cultural works and their related information. It aims to provide core descriptive metadata for works while allowing flexibility in the level of detail provided. The schema includes 22 elements, with 19 for descriptive metadata, 3 for administrative metadata, and 9 required elements. It utilizes controlled vocabularies, XML syntax rules, and semantic elements. Records encoded in CDWA-Lite can be harvested through the Open Archives Initiative protocol.

1. “You put down
one color, it calls
for another. You
have to look at it
like a melody.”
– Romare Bearden
Fall 2013 | Metadata Presentation
By kYmberly Keeton
The University of North Texas
MLIS Candidate| Spring 2014
www.kreativeyoungmillionaire.com
Artwork By:
Jacob Lawrence, Elizabeth Catlett, Romare Bearden, William H. Johnson
1

2. The CDWA (resource) was created as a structure to describe art work and
their accompany images that can be navigated to a database or via an
XML-scheme encoding scheme, promoting sharing of research records and
user access. CDWA was founded in the early 1990s by the Art Information
Task Force. The group is comprised of art and information professionals that
came together to create specific rules for describing art, objects,
architecture, textual information, and visual artifacts. The AITF was funded
by the J. Paul Getty Trust, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and
the College Art Association.
The CDWA-Lite XML schema was created by three organizations including
ARTstor, the J. Paul Getty Trust, and RLG Programs/OCLC to describe
artifacts, cultural entities, and their affiliates. “This initiative was driven by the
absence of a data content standard specifically designed for unique
cultural works, and a technical format for expressing this data in a machinereadable format.
Quote By Wikipedia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categories_for_the_Description_of_Works_of_Art
2

3. 
CDWA FRAMEWORK = 532 categories + subcategories

The CWDA Framework promotes the following: Compatibility |
Accessibility | Integrity of Data | Longevity of Data.

Intended Users: curators, information managers, systems
vendors, and registrars.
Source:
http://www.getty.edu/research/publications/electronic_publications/cdwa/cdwalite.html
3

4. Visual Depiction | CDWA
Source: www.getty.edu/research/publications/electronic_publications/cdwa/introduction.html
4

5. 5
•“CDWA
Lite is an XML schema to describe core records for works
of art and material culture based on the Categories for the
Description of Works of Art (CDWA) and Cataloging Cultural
Objects: A Guide to Describing Cultural Works and Their Images (
CCO) (which uses a subset of the CDWA categories).”
“The purpose of this schema is to describe a format for core
records for works of art and material culture, based on the data
elements and guidelines contained in the CDWA and CCO. Like
VRA Core, CDWA Lite offers an XML format in which to store
metadata about works of visual culture in accordance with
CCO. CDWA Lite records are intended for contribution to union
catalogs and other repositories using the Open Archives Initiative
(OAI) harvesting protocol.”
•
Quotes By The Getty
Source: http://www.getty.edu/research/publications/electronic_publications/cdwa/cdwalite.html

6. 
Cataloging Cultural Objects
“… A guide to Describing Cultural Works and
Their Images (CC) includes rules and examples for
a core subset of the CDWA categories and the
VRA Core Categories.” The CCO is the third of four types
of data standards for the art and material cultures (it is the
dominant source used today). The guide is available in
hardcopy via their website for free.
Quote By VRA Foundation Source:
http://cco.vrafoundation.org/index.php/aboutindex/

VRA Core 4.
“A data standard for the description of images
and works of art and culture. The current version
of this standard is VRA Core 4.0, which features
two options for implementation: “unrestricted”
which defines the VRA Core data elements, and
“restricted” which enforces data constraints on
certain elements to predefined vocabularies or
date formats.” Quote By Archivists.Org Source:
http://www2.archivists.org/standards/visual-resources-association-core-categories-vra-core
6

7. EXAMPLE
Has 22 highlevel elements,
19 are
descriptive
metadata and
3 for
administrative
metadata, 9
are required.
Source: IFLA Conference
http://conference.ifla.org/past/2009/107-coburn-en.pdf
7

8. A main characteristic of the CDWA Lite
format is the division of the descriptive
metadata in display elements on one
hand, optimized for presentation
purposes, and indexing elements
optimized for retrieval.
Source: IFLA Conference
http://conference.ifla.org/past/2009/107-coburn-en.pdf
Indexing elements, they usually should
refer to authorities for actors, places, or to
controlled vocabularies, are provided
with attributes for storing a respective URI
(term source and term source ID), assuring
the identity of a term in a larger context.
Source: IFLA Conference
http://conference.ifla.org/past/2009/107-coburn-en.pdf
8

9. Image | Titian (Tiziano Vecellio)
Source: Image | Metadata Record
http://conference.ifla.org/past/2009/107coburn-en.pdf
9

10. METADATA RECORD Harvested CONTINUED….
This metadata record also had Indexing elements along with the display element.
“Indexing elements contain information that facilitates search and retrieval, in addition to
assisting aggregators with filtering and sorting search results. At the J. Paul Getty Museum, the creator
information largely comes from an artist authority file, which is then mapped appropriately to CDWA Lite
indexing and display elements,” (IFLA Conference, 2009)
<cdwalite:displayCreator> Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) (Italian, about 1487 1576)</cdwalite:displayCreator>
<cdwalite:indexingCreatorSet>
<cdwalite:nameCreatorSet> <cdwalite:nameCreator type="personalName" termsource="ULAN"
termsourceID=" ulan500031075"> Titian </cdwalite:nameCreator>
<cdwalite:nameCreatorSet>
<cdwalite:nameCreatorSet> <cdwalite:nameCreator type="personalName" termsource="ULAN"
termsourceID="ulan500031075"> Vecellio, Tiziano </cdwalite:nameCreator>
<cdwalite:nameCreatorSet>
<cdwalite:nationalityCreator>Italian</cdwalite:nationalityCreator>
<cdwalite:vitalDatesCreator birthdate="1487" deathdate="1576"> about 1487 - 1576
</cdwalite:vitalDatesCreator>
<cdwalite:genderCreator> male </cdwalite:genderCreator>
<cdwalite:roleCreator termsource="AAT" termsourceID="aat300025136">painter
</cdwalite:roleCreator>
</cdwalite:indexingCreatorSet>
</cdwalite:indexingCreatorWrap>
10

11. CDWA-LITE XML Schema E X A M P L E
The goal of
CDWA-LITE
*Provide core descriptive
metadata about cultural works.
However, it is up to the
provider of the data to
determine the information level
of high or low with regard to
how their record will be
documented, retrieved.
Source:
http://www.vraweb.org/seiweb/readings-prep/CCOandCDWA_Lite-Baca.pdf
11

12. CDWA-Lite | Controlled Vocabulary
Person/Corporate Body
Authority Place/ Location
Authority Generic Concept
Authority Subject Authority
CDWA-LITE | Syntax | Semantics
Uses XML Syntax Rules
Descriptive Metadata (Elements)
Administrative & Resource Metadata (Elements)
Source:
http://www.getty.edu/research/publications/electronic_publications/cdwa/cdwalite.pdf &
12

13. In Action | Descriptive Metadata Schema | Controlled Vocabulary, Syntax,
and Semantics
Source VIA ARTstor: http://www.getty.edu/research/publications/electronic_publications/cdwa/cdwalite.pdf
13

14. Two Women, 1969
By Romare Bearden
Image | User Metadata http://libproxy.library.unt.edu:3108/library/welcome.html#3|search|6|All20Collections3A20Romare20Bearden|
Filtered20Search|||
14
type3D3626kw3DRomare20Bearden26geoIds3D26clsIds3D26collTypes3D26id3Dall26bDate3D26eDate3D26dExact3D26prGeoId3D||12|

15. 
The CDWA-Lite XML schema was created by three organizations
including ARTstor, the J. Paul Getty Trust, and RLG Programs/OCLC to
describe artifacts, cultural entities, and their affiliates.

Goal of CDWA-LITE: To provide core descriptive metadata about
cultural works. However, it is up to the provider of the data to
determine the information level of high or low with regard to how
their record will be documented, retrieved.

CDWA-LITE XML Schema has 22 elements, 19 are descriptive
metadata and 3 for administrative metadata, 9 are required. The
schema does have controlled vocabulary elements, uses XML
Syntax Rules, and has elements that consists of meaning with regard
to information objects.

CDWA-LITE is harvested through the Open Archives Initiative (OAI)
harvesting protocol.
15

16. Slide #1:
Slide #2:
Slide #3:
Slide #4:
Slide #5:
Slide #6:
Artwork By: Jacob Lawrence, Elizabeth Catlett, Romare Bearden and William H. Johnson
Wikipedia | CDWA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categories_for_the_Description_of_Works_of_Art
Getty CDWA: http://www.getty.edu/research/publications/electronic_publications/cdwa/cdwalite.html
CDWA Structure: www.getty.edu/research/publications/electronic_publications/cdwa/introduction.html
CDWA-Lite Def: http://www.getty.edu/research/publications/electronic_publications/cdwa/cdwalite.html
CCO: http://cco.vrafoundation.org/index.php/aboutindex/
Slide #6:
Slide# 7:
Slide #8:
Slide #9:
Slide#9:
VRA 4.0: http://www2.archivists.org/standards/visual-resources-association-core-categories-vra-core
CDWA-Lite Element: http://conference.ifla.org/past/2009/107-coburn-en.pdf
CDWA Information: http://conference.ifla.org/past/2009/107-coburn-en.pdf
IFLA | CDWA: http://conference.ifla.org/past/2009/107-coburn-en.pdf
IFLA | Image: Titian (Tiziano Vecellio)
Slide #10: IFLA | Metadata Record: http://conference.ifla.org/past/2009/107-coburn-en.pdf
Slide #11: CDWA LITE XML Scheme: http://www.vraweb.org/seiweb/readings-prep/CCOandCDWA_Lite-Baca.pdf
Slide #12: CDWA-Lite: http://www.getty.edu/research/publications/electronic_publications/cdwa/cdwalite.pdf &
Slide #13: http://www.getty.edu/research/publications/electronic_publications/cdwa/cdwalite.pdf
Slide #14: User | Metadata: Image | User Metadata http://libproxy.library.unt.edu:3108/library/welcome.html#3|
search|6|All20Collections3A20Romare20Bearden|Filtered20Search|||
type3D3626kw3DRomare20Bearden26geoIds3D26clsIds3D26collTypes3D26id3Dall26bDate3D26eDate3D26dExact
3D26prGeoId3D||12|
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