03180nas a2200349   4500000000100000000000100001008004100002260001400043653002600057653002500083653002500108653002000133653002200153653003400175653001300209653002300222653001400245653003100259653003600290653002600326653002300352100001200375700001100387700001100398700001000409245014500419856016100564300001200725490000600737520206200743020002502805       2013                            d  aMarseille10aAcademic institutions10aDescriptive metadata10aDigital preservation10aDigital storage10aEthnic Minorities10aIntangible cultural heritages10aMetadata10aMetadata Standards10aStandards10adigitalizing oral heritage10aethnic minority groups in China10aliving epic tradition10ametadata standards1 aQ. Bamo1 aC. Guo1 aH. Yin1 aG. Li00aCustomizing discipline-based metadata standards for digital preservation of living epic traditions in China: Basic principles and challenges  uhttps://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84896754437&doi=10.1109%2fDigitalHeritage.2013.6744746&partnerID=40&md5=83122ada6cedf80b6597895d5d4e6a7e  a145-1510 v23 aEpics in China are large in scale with multiple types. Creation epics, origination epics, and heroic epics have been orally transmitted or circulated among many ethnic groups. As a leading academic institution in the field of epic studies, the Institute of Ethnic Literature (IEL), Chines Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) has been committed to collecting, preserving, and exploring Chinese ethnic epic traditions for more than three decades so far. Since 2011, IEL has launched a key project entitled  IEL Archives for Ethnic Minorities  Oral Traditions in China  at CASS level to construct a digital database to document and manage oral tradition materials, including epic tradition materials collected by research fellows from IEL during these years. The Epic Collection at IEL s Documentation Center for Ethnic Literature in China encompasses 43 ethnic minorities  epics handed down in the mainland China, especially the Three Grand Epics, namely Tibetan-Mongolian epic King Gesar/Geser, Mongolian epic Jangar, and Kirgiz epic Manas, which are still performed by the epic singers and storytellers from the different ethnic groups in the remote areas. Its main repositories possess audio-visual recordings, photographs, and varied manuscripts or texts with regard to different thematic data or data sets on epic traditional skills, expressive forms, social practices, ritual events, as well as life histories of epic performers and folk artists. The goal of the digital database, as established by IEL s plan, to serve for both academic studies and public promotion, along with the increasing need to share data, has made it essential to customize discipline-based metadata standards and facilitate the integration of different database. In the present paper, we introduce the process of customizing discipline-based metadata standards devoted to the documentation of living epic traditions in China, discussing the challenges we have encountered and our solutions, as well as some considerations of descriptive metadata for intangible cultural heritage.  a9781479931699 (ISBN)