Mining the Archives: Metadata Development and Implementation

Mining the Archives: Metadata Development and Implementation. Martin White. Ariadne.
13 February 2015.
This is review of articles in the Ariadne archives on metadata. Michael Day, Metadata Officer at UKOLN, contributed a short paper to Ariadne on the implications of metadata for digital preservation. He set out five important questions which still represent challenges for the profession:

• Who will define what preservation metadata are needed?
• Who will decide what needs to be preserved?
• Who will archive the preserved information?
• Who will create the metadata?
• Who will pay for it?

The challenges of metadata development and implementation are substantial. A paper “Application Profiles: Mixing and Matching Metadata Schemas” talks about the roles of those making the metadata standards and those using them:

Both sets of people are intent on describing resources in order to manipulate them in some way. Standard makers are concerned to agree a common approach to ensure inter-working systems and economies of scale. However implementors, although they may want to use standards in part, in addition will want to describe specific aspects of a resource in a “special” way. Although the separation between those involved in standards making and implementation may be considered a false dichotomy, as many individuals involved in the metadata world take part in both activities, it is useful to distinguish the different priorities inherent in the two activities.

Digital Preservation Matters.