[Dspace-general] Custom metadata or keywords? Best practice.

[Chris B]

Here is what we have, followed by a best practice question.

A data set, with a Code, a Discipline, and a Description. Specifically
these are ADA dental procedure codes. What we want to do is assign one
or more of these codes to items placed into a collection. Then when
searching, we need it to search in the description field.

Now the question part. I did explore using the MeSH codes, since it
seems that most of the ADA codes are a subset of the MeSH. However,
the codes are different, and there does not seem to be a 1 to 1
mapping. For other reasons we really need to use the actual ADA codes
from this data set. This is where I am stumped. It could all just be
done with keywords, but this is not efficient, especially with regards
to the descriptions.

The other option I explored was to register a new metadata namespace
and name. Then, add Elements, Qualifiers, and Scope Notes for the
Discipline, Code, and Description respectively. But this methodology
also does not seem right.

In the DSpace structure, is there a clear best practice for
facilitating this need?