Metadata for your Digital Collections

Metadata for your Digital Collections. Jenn Riley. Indiana Cooperative Library Services Authority. March 6, 2007.
    A slideshow about metadata that I came across while preparing a presentation. A summary:
There are many definitions of metadata; generally it can be defined as structured information about an information resource. The presentation looks at the uses, structure and types of metadata:

• Descriptive metadata
• Technical metadata
• Preservation metadata
• Rights metadata
• Structural metadata

Each of the various metadata types have their structures, values, benefits, and limitations, including:

• Dublin core, inability to "provide robust record relationships".                          
• Qualified Dublin Core
• MARC
• MARCXML, "the exact structure of MARC21 in an XML syntax"
• MODS, "'MARC-like' but intended to be simpler"
• Others include Visual Resources Association Core, TEI, EAD, FRBR,

The standards are important now because it will help in migrating to other systems later and the collections will be more inter-operable.  Good digital collections are:

• Inter-operable, shareable and searchable
• Persistent
• Re-usable for multiple purposes

It notes that "good metadata promotes good digital collections". To share the metadata it needs to be prepared to map across other formats and systems. A map or 'crosswalk' can be created to do this. It is "good practice to create and store most robust metadata format possible." You need to find the right balance for your metadata. Good shareable metadata should involve:

• content
• consistency
• coherence
• context
• communication
• conformance

That is what the standards help to do.

Digital Preservation Matters.