Abstract
The aim of this study was to analyze the content, context, and structure of folktales from the Mekong River Basin, and to develop a metadata schema for data description and folktale storage. The research was conducted using the MAAT metadata lifecycle model, which comprises the following four steps: (1) conducting an information content analysis; (2) creating metadata requirements, (3) developing a metadata schema; and (4) carrying out a metadata service and evaluation. The folktale analysis, based on Anne Gilliland's information object analysis, revealed the following: (1) the folktale content consists of types of tales, and the morals, beliefs, and parts they incorporate; (2) the folktale context consists of and names distributors, characters, scenes, magical objects, ethnic groups, languages, countries, relationships between tales, and their sources; (3) the folktale structure includes verbal, non-verbal, and mixed forms. The metadata schema development adopted the functional requirements for bibliographic records concepts and existing metadata standards, resulting in metadata with the following 18 elements: identifier, title, creator, contributor, description, relation, language, medium, sources, date, rights, keyword, character, moral, ethnic group, motif, place, and country. The metadata elements were described using the categories: name, definition, format, example, and note.
