This collection of reports from the field is an opportunity for librarians to learn from the experience of others involved in technically diverse digital library archive projects. It offers project planners, metadata librarians, systems and technical services librarians, and catalogers a problem-solving approach and real-world supplement.

Metadata best practices and guidelines function as an essential mechanism for metadata planning, application and management, and interoperability. There has been a rapidly growing body of digital repositories and collections; accordingly, a wide range of digital projects and initiatives have adopted various metadata standards. Because of differences in the formats and knowledge domains of the resources, it is inevitable that these digital projects and initiatives may have different needs regarding metadata. Therefore, when a metadata standard is adopted in various institutions and organizations, it may have to be modified to reflect the community needs and characteristics of given resources. The flexibility and complex structure of natural language allow for the representation of a concept in various ways. Thus, common understanding and definitions of terms in a given metadata standard is essential for quality metadata generation, management, interoperability and resource sharing. This opens up a pressing need for a systematic examination of documentation practices, an area that up to now has been relatively unexplored. This book begins to fill the research gap through an empirical assessment of metadata guidelines and best practices. This is a book published as a special issue of the Journal of Library Metadata.

Everything we need to know about metadata, the usually invisible infrastructure for information with which we interact every day. When “metadata” became breaking news, appearing in stories about surveillance by the National Security Agency, many members of the public encountered this once-obscure term from information science for the first time. Should people be reassured that the NSA was “only” collecting metadata about phone calls—information about the caller, the recipient, the time, the duration, the location—and not recordings of the conversations themselves? Or does phone call metadata reveal more than it seems? In this book, Jeffrey Pomerantz offers an accessible and concise introduction to metadata. In the era of ubiquitous computing, metadata has become infrastructural, like the electrical grid or the highway system. We interact with it or generate it every day. It is not, Pomerantz tell us, just “data about data.” It is a means by which the complexity of an object is represented in a simpler form. For example, the title, the author, and the cover art are metadata about a book. When metadata does its job well, it fades into the background; everyone (except perhaps the NSA) takes it for granted. Pomerantz explains what metadata is, and why it exists. He distinguishes among different types of metadata—descriptive, administrative, structural, preservation, and use—and examines different users and uses of each type. He discusses the technologies that make modern metadata possible, and he speculates about metadata's future. By the end of the book, readers will see metadata everywhere. Because, Pomerantz warns us, it's metadata's world, and we are just living in it.

This book provides a practical introduction to metadata for the digital library, describing in detail how to implement a strategic approach which will enable complex digital objects to be discovered, delivered and preserved in the short- and long-term.

What is metadata and what do I need to know about it? These are two key questions for the information professional operating in the digital age as more and more information resources are available in electronic format. This is a thought-provoking introduction to metadata written by one of its leading advocates. It assesses the current theory and practice of metadata and examines key developments - including global initiatives and multilingual issues - in terms of both policy and technology. Subjects discussed include: What is metadata? definitions and concepts Retrieval environments: web; library catalogues; documents and records management; GIS; e-Learning Using metadata to enhance retrieval: pointing to content; subject retrieval; language control and indexing Information management issues: interoperability; information security; authority control; authentication and legal admissibility of evidence; records management and document lifecyc≤ preservation issues Application of metadata to information management: document and records management; content management systems for the internet Managing metadata: how to develop a schema Standards development: Dublin Core; UK Government metadata standards (eGIF); IFLA FRBR Model for cataloguing resources Looking forward: the semantic web; the Web Ontology Working Group. Readership: This book will be essential reading for network-oriented librarians and information workers in all sectors and for LIS students. In addition, it will provide useful background reading for computer staff supporting information services. Publishers, policy makers and practitioners in other curatorial traditions such as museums work or archiving will also find much of relevance.

Since it was first published, LIS students and professionals everywhere have relied on Miller’s authoritative manual for clear instruction on the real-world practice of metadata design and creation. Now the author has given his text a top to bottom overhaul to bring it fully up to date, making it even easier for readers to acquire the knowledge and skills they need, whether they use the book on the job or in a classroom. By following this book’s guidance, with its inclusion of numerous practical examples that clarify common application issues and challenges, readers will learn about the concept of metadata and its functions for digital collections, why it’s essential to approach metadata specifically as data for machine processing, and how metadata can work in the rapidly developing Linked Data environment; know how to create high-quality resource descriptions using widely shared metadata standards, vocabularies, and elements commonly needed for digital collections; become thoroughly familiarized with Dublin Core (DC) through exploration of DCMI Metadata Terms, CONTENTdm best practices, and DC as Linked Data; discover what Linked Data is, how it is expressed in the Resource Description Framework (RDF), and how it works in relation to specific semantic models (typically called “ontologies”) such as BIBFRAME, comprised of properties and classes with “domain” and “range” specifications; get to know the MODS and VRA Core metadata schemes, along with recent developments related to their use in a Linked Data setting; understand the nuts and bolts of designing and documenting a metadata scheme; and gain knowledge of vital metadata interoperability and quality issues, including how to identify and clean inconsistent, missing, and messy metadata using innovative tools such as OpenRefine.

This book begins with an introduction to fundamental issues related to digital preservation metadata before proceeding to in-depth coverage of issues concerning its practical use and implementation. It helps readers to understand which options need to be considered in specifying a digital preservation metadata profile to ensure it matches their individual content types, technical infrastructure, and organizational needs. Further, it provides practical guidance and examples, and raises important questions. It does not provide full-fledged implementation solutions, as such solutions can, by definition, only be specific to a given preservation context. As such, the book effectively bridges the gap between the formal specifications provided in a standard, such as the PREMIS Data Dictionary – a de-facto standard that defines the core metadata required by most preservation repositories – and specific implementations. Anybody who needs to manage digital assets in any form with the intent of preserving them for an indefinite period of time will find this book a valuable resource. The PREMIS Data Dictionary provides a data model consisting of basic entities (objects, agents, events and rights) and basic properties (called “semantic units”) that describe them. The key challenge addressed is that of determining which information one needs to keep, together with one’s digital assets, so that they can be understood and used in the long-term – in other words, exactly which metadata one needs. The book will greatly benefit beginners and current practitioners alike. It is equally targeted at digital preservation repository managers and metadata analysts who are responsible for digital preservation metadata, as it is at students in Library, Information and Archival Science degree programs or related fields. Further, it can be used at the conception stage of a digital preservation system or for self-auditing an existing system.