taxonomy of computer assemblages

I'm prototyping my cataloging system for the Computer Graphics History Museum with CollectiveAccess. So far, so good. I've come across the need to extend one of their standard metadata profiles with data specific to my specific domain. This is a common situation. The kind folks at the Living Computer Museum recommended that I have a way of describing the various parts within a computer system: - systems assembled from racks - racks assembled from boards and hardware - boards assembled from chips - etc. However, I don't need to get bogged down into the details of each system with my metadata. I was thinking of trying to keep it simple and create a taxonomy consisting only of two categories: assembly and part. Assemblies are containers for parts and other assemblies. So, my 4-rack Onyx2 Reality Monster might be broken down into something like this: Id Assembly Name Contains Assembly Contains Part 1 System 2, 3, 4, 5 2 Rack 6, 7 3 Rack 4 Rack 5 Rack 6 CPU Rack Module 8, 9, 10, 11 7 Graphics Rack Module 12, 13, 14, 15 8 CPU Board 1, 2 9 CPU Board 10 CPU Board 11 CPU Board 12 Graphics Board 13 Graphics Board 14 Graphics Board 15 Graphics Board Id Part Name 1 CPU Module 2 CPU Module filled out a complete transitive closure of all the parts in this system. Ultimately, the goal is to be able to track the provenance of any particular part or assembly is it is moved and/or combined with other hardware in the collection in order to obtain working systems. This shouldn't be too hard with the current collection as I've hardly done anything to the systems in the collection in terms of modifications. However, as time progresses, this information will become more important. My question for the list is: do you think this simple taxonomy of recursive assemblies and parts is sufficient? I'd rather not create metadata for the sake of creating metadata in my catalog profile. It seems to me that the amount of maintenance work in a catalog is directly proportional to the amount of stuff you're trying to capture in the catalog. Your thoughts or comments are appreciated. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com/the-direct3d-graphics-pipeline/> Legalize Adulthood! <http://legalizeadulthood.wordpress.com>