Workshop Lecture Notes ==>

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Metadata for Digital Collections

Graduate Workshop (1 credit hour)
Marcia Lei Zeng, Ph.D.
SLIS, KSU

Intended Audience:

Practicing library and information professionals and anyone who is involved in establishing digital collections in distinct information communities for the purposes of managing, publishing, and preserving documents in the digital environment.

Goals and Objectives:

Metadata is a critical mechanism both in knowledge representation of digital collections and in data mining. Metadata describes the attributes of a resource, where the resource may consist of bibliographical objects (e.g., as represented by MARC metadata), archival inventories and registers (e.g., EAD metadata), geospatial objects (e.g., CSDGM), museum and visual resources (e.g., CDWA, VRA), or learning objects (LOM). This workshop examines the role of metadata in the digital environment. Emphasis is on the development and implementation of metadata schemas in distinct information communities and on the standards and technological applications used to create machine understandable metadata. Issues related to interoperability, controlled vocabularies, application profiles, and metadata registries will also be discussed.

After completing the workshop, the students will be able:

• 1. to understand the concepts and structure of metadata;
• 2. to explore various operational and proposed metadata standards for specific digital collections;
• 3. to understand different issues in the applications of metadata standards in a larger context of a project, a community, and the society;
• 4. to acquaint experience in applying a selected metadata standard to records or collections;
• 5. to be able to design, evaluate, and modify metadata elements according to local need;
• 6. to contribute to the implementation of metadata in a website or a database; and
• 7. to examine issues related to interoperability, controlled vocabularies, application profiles, and metadata registries.

Workshop Outline and Assignments

See Lecture Notes for details

Pre-workshop assignments: (6 hours)

1. Readings (Choose 2 from introductory level readings and write a one-page report for each.)

• Introductory level
  • NISO (2004). Understanding Metadata. Bethesda, MD: NISO Press. URL: http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/UnderstandingMetadata.pdf | Local link to the pdf file
    
    
  • Gilliland-Swetland, Anne (2000). Setting the Stage. In: Murtha Baca ed.: Introduction to Metadata, Pathway to Digital Information. Version 2.1. Getty Information Institute. URL: http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/standards/intrometadata/setting.html
    
    
  • NISO Framework Advisory Group. (2007). "Metadata". In: A Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections. 3rd ed. Priscilla Caplan, Grace Agnew, Murtha Baca, Carl Fleischhauer, Tony Gill, Ingrid Hsieh-Yee, Jill Koelling, Christie Stephenson, and Karen A . Wetzel. URL:
    http://www.niso.org/framework/framework3.pdf

 

• Advanced level

• Duval, Erik, Wayne Hodgins, Stuart Sutton, Stuart L. Weibel (2002). Metadata Principles and Practicalities. D-Lib Magazine 8(4) URL: http://www.dlib.org/dlib/april02/weibel/04weibel.html
  
  
• Caplan, Pris cilla (2000). International metadata initiatives: lessons in bibliographic control. Paper presented at: Conference on Bibliographic Control in the New Millennium, Library of Congress, November, 2000.
  URL: http://lcweb.loc.gov/catdir/bibcontrol/caplan_paper.html
  

2. Every participant must identify a digital collection (to be built or already exists)and bring the case into the workshop. This digital collection will be the one that goes into the final project.

If you do not have a case, please take the case I prepared.

Day 1. Metadata Basics

1. Metadata development overview

2. Metadata records

3. Metadata types and functions

4. Current operational and proposed metadata standards

5. Metadata record creation and tools

Day 2. Working with metadata for your digital collection (Advanced)

6. Metadata value space

7. Decisions for your digital collection

8. Working with standards

9. Metadata applications and trends

10. Summary

 

Final project

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In accordance with University policy, if you have a documented disability and require accommodations to obtain equal access in this workshop, you are responsible for notifying your instructor at the beginning of the workshop in which an accommodation is required. Please note that it is necessary for you to first verify your eligibility for requested accommodations through the Office of Student Disability Services (SDS) located in Room 181 of the Michael Schwartz Center at the Kent Campus (330-672-3391). To do this, you must schedule an appointment with an SDS staff member and provide the office with appropriate documentation of your disability. Upon verification, the SDS staff member will present you with “accommodation letters” to give to your instructors.

Last updated: 2008-02-03

©Marcia Lei Zeng, 2001-2008

email: mzeng@kent.edu

Website: http://www.slis.kent.edu/~mzeng/