Archive as a collection of things

Separate from the recent Proposal for an 'Archive' Type
<http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-architypes/2015Jul/0002.html>
thread which discusses describing an organization that has archive(s), I
think we can now embark on how we describe an archive as in a collection of
things.  (How we describe those things that are in such a collection can
then come next)

On the wiki <https://www.w3.org/community/architypes/wiki/Main_Page> I
raised the question: Is the Collection proposal* for bib.schema.org
<http://bib.schema.org> sufficient, or do we need a subtype for an
ArchiveCollection? * The result of the Collection proposal can be viewed in
a prerelease version on a schema.org test site bib.webschemas.org/Collection.
There is a simple example on that page showing the how you could describe
the Collection and a few things within it.

To answer my own question, I feel that there would be merit in proposing a
subtype of Collection with a name something like ArchiveCollection.  It
would identify the collection being described as being of an archive nature
(*whatever that might mean*).  It would also provide somewhere to add
archive specific properties without polluting the generic Collection Type.

Having said that the properties that Collection, inherits from CreativeWork
and Thing, provides most of what we will need, such as:

   - Name - name of archive collection
   - url - of web page/site for archive collection
   - description
   - dateCreated, dateModified, datePublished
   - creator, editor, contributor
   - about - generically used in Schema to describe subject information
   from topics to persons, organizations, or events etc.
   - isPartOf - the collection, of collections, that an archive collection
   might be part of.
   - hasPart - something that is in the archive collection.

hasPart currently has a range restricted to CreativeWork.  As archives can
contain things that are not, in Schema.org's understanding of,
CreativeWorks (airplanes, fossils, locks of hair, hats, etc.)  we will need
to propose that the range of the hasPart property be expanded to include
all things that can be found in an archive.

OK, I've gone on enough.  What are others ideas on this - is this a good
approach? - is ArchiveCollection a good name? - what other properties might
need adding to what we get by sub typing Collection?

~Richard.


Richard Wallis
Founder, Data Liberate
http://dataliberate.com
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/richardwallis
Twitter: @rjw