An Emergent Theory of Digital Library Metadata is a reaction to the current digital library landscape that is being challenged with growing online collections and changing user expectations. The theory provides the conceptual underpinnings for a new approach which moves away from expert defined standardised metadata to a user driven approach with users as metadata co-creators. Moving away from definitive, authoritative, metadata to a system that reflects the diversity of users’ terminologies, it changes the current focus on metadata simplicity and efficiency to one of metadata enriching, which is a continuous and evolving process of data linking. From predefined description to information conceptualised, contextualised and filtered at the point of delivery. By presenting this shift, this book provides a coherent structure in which future technological developments can be considered. Metadata is valuable when continuously enriched by experts and users Metadata enriching results from ubiquitous linkin Metadata is a resource that should be linked openly The power of metadata is unlocked when enriched metadata is filtered for users individually

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.

Discover Digital Libraries: Theory and Practice is a book that integrates both research and practice concerning digital library development, use, preservation, and evaluation. The combination of current research and practical guidelines is a unique strength of this book. The authors bring in-depth expertise on different digital library issues and synthesize theoretical and practical perspectives relevant to researchers, practitioners, and students. The book presents a comprehensive overview of the different approaches and tools for digital library development, including discussions of the social and legal issues associated with digital libraries. Readers will find current research and the best practices of digital libraries, providing both US and international perspectives on the development of digital libraries and their components, including collection, digitization, metadata, interface design, sustainability, preservation, retrieval, and evaluation of digital libraries. - Offers an overview of digital libraries and the conceptual and practical understanding of digital libraries - Presents the lifecycle of digital library design, use, preservation and evaluation, including collection development, digitization of static and multimedia resources, metadata, digital library development and interface design, digital information searching, digital preservation, and digital library evaluation - Synthesizes current research and the best practices of digital libraries, providing both US and international perspectives on the development of digital libraries - Introduces new developments in the area of digital libraries, such as large-scale digital libraries, social media applications in digital libraries, multilingual digital libraries, digital curation, linked data, rapid capture, guidelines for the digitization of multimedia resources - Highlights the impact, challenges, suggestions for overcoming these challenges, and trends of present and future development of digital librariesOffers a comprehensive bibliography for each chapter

Digital information and networks challenge the core practices of libraries, archives, and all organizations with intensive information management needs in many respectsâ€"not only in terms of accommodating digital information and technology, but also through the need to develop new economic and organizational models for managing information. LC21: A Digital Strategy for the Library of Congress discusses these challenges and provides recommendations for moving forward at the Library of Congress, the world's largest library. Topics covered in LC21 include digital collections, digital preservation, digital cataloging (metadata), strategic planning, human resources, and general management and budgetary issues. The book identifies and elaborates upon a clear theme for the Library of Congress that is applicable more generally: the digital age calls for much more collaboration and cooperation than in the past. LC21 demonstrates that information-intensive organizations will have to change in fundamental ways to survive and prosper in the digital age.

Protect your digital resources! This book addresses critical issues of preservation, giving you everything you need to effectively protect your resources-from dealing with obsolescence, to responsibilities, methods of preservation, cost, and metadata formats. It also gives examples of numerous national and international institutions that provide frameworks for digital libraries and archives. A long-overdue text for anyone involved in the preservation of digital information, this book is critical in understanding today's methods and practices, intellectual discourse, and preservation guidelines. A must for librarians, archiving professionals, faculty and students of library science, administrators, and corporate leaders!

Metadata in library information environments is evolving rapidly. This book provides readers with a set of tools for designing, developing, and implementing metadata-rich information systems while also examining the challenges and opportunities in this field. As the world of library and information science has developed in the age of digital information, metadata and metadata-rich information systems have become increasingly important—and more complex and confusing. This book will enable students, instructors, and practitioners in the information science field to understand how these new systems and standards will impact their careers and professions. Author Erik Mitchell explores definitions of information and presents an up-to-date consideration of user needs in information systems to provide necessary background before moving on to in-depth discussions of metadata, information organization practice, and information system design. Each chapter incorporates hands-on activities to complement the reading material, allowing readers to build technical skills alongside the important conceptual learning in this content area. Readers will gain conceptual understanding and skills that will allow them to analyze and transform structured data, develop metadata-rich information systems, and design systems with user needs and digital literacies in mind. This book is intended for library and information science students taking information organization, metadata, or other core "digital cataloging" classes, but will also be highly useful for professionals seeking to learn the details of metadata systems and theory using a hands-on approach.

How to Build a Digital Library reviews knowledge and tools to construct and maintain a digital library, regardless of the size or purpose. A resource for individuals, agencies, and institutions wishing to put this powerful tool to work in their burgeoning information treasuries. The Second Edition reflects developments in the field as well as in the Greenstone Digital Library open source software. In Part I, the authors have added an entire new chapter on user groups, user support, collaborative browsing, user contributions, and so on. There is also new material on content-based queries, map-based queries, cross-media queries. There is an increased emphasis placed on multimedia by adding a "digitizing" section to each major media type. A new chapter has also been added on "internationalization," which will address Unicode standards, multi-language interfaces and collections, and issues with non-European languages (Chinese, Hindi, etc.). Part II, the software tools section, has been completely rewritten to reflect the new developments in Greenstone Digital Library Software, an internationally popular open source software tool with a comprehensive graphical facility for creating and maintaining digital libraries. - Outlines the history of libraries on both traditional and digital - Written for both technical and non-technical audiences and covers the entire spectrum of media, including text, images, audio, video, and related XML standards - Web-enhanced with software documentation, color illustrations, full-text index, source code, and more