Recently in metadata Category

This week marks the start of an online course my employer was kind enough to pay for me to attend called "Metadata for You and Me: A Training Program for Shareable Metadata".

I was interested in taking this course for two main reasons: first, because in the world of digitization we spend a huge amount of time creating metadata on the item level for every digital object in out repositories and this equates to lots of dollars in staff time. So, I'd like to spend some time thinking about this investment and what type of returns it is providing for us. Are we agonizing over the right things? Spending too much time or detail? Using appropriate standards?

Secondly, we do indeed have the noble goal of providing accurate, easily discoverable, re-useable records but are we delivering the goods or deluding ourselves? What exactly does our metadata look like outside our own local repository and does it mind its manners? As much as I'd like to say that my metadata is a model citizen...I just don't really know. With more and more materials being aggregated with the goal of broader access, it's time to try and find out.

I logged into the on-line course this morning and printed out some of the readings for the first module. I couldn't help but draw attention to a fabulous article, Metadata For All: Descriptive Standards across Libraries, Archives, and Museums that worked miracles in helping me to understand what exactly we are talking about when we discuss metadata (especially across library, museum, and archives standards). It is also recent enough (2007) to provide up-to date information about recent trends and proposes a format-based way of looking at standards in the parallel disciplines. A very good read.

I will update this blog as I progress through the course and learn more!

When browsing a collection of really cool digital images, it can be easy to claim ignorance of the important role metadata plays in navigating a digital collection. To be honest, not many folks show a real passion for understanding and exploring why metadata matters so much. But, it truly is a very important part of any digital collection and I'd like to focus on one aspect of why it plays such an important role. In the recent workshop we held at UNLV, one question came up repeatedly, "Okay, so metadata is important. Well, what exactly is good metadata and what can good metadata do for me?" I have located a great article (mentioned in the workshop) that addresses this subject. Moving Towards Shareable Metadata concisely describes not only the importance of metadata, but some practical ways to create shareable metadata. As defined in the article, sharebale metadata is defined as

Metadata which can be understood and used outside of its local environment by aggregators to provide more advanced services.

In the collections we are currently working on, we use the Dublin Core metadata standard and include fields that refer to both the item itself and the physical collection it comes from. We also have built-in layers of quality control that help check for consistency and even levels of granularity between records. By conforming to recognized standards, including information that provides context outside the local environment, and by striving for consistency UNLV LIbraries is contributing shareable metadata and contributing to interoperabilty between diverse digital collections.