Diane I. Hillmann

Core services in the architecture of the national science digital library (NSDL)

We describe the core components of the architecture for the National Science Digital Library (NSDL). Over time the NSDL will include heterogeneous users, content, and services. To accommodate this, a design for a technical and organization infrastructure has been formulated based on the notion of a spectrum of interoperability. This paper describes the first phase of the interoperability infrastructure including the metadata repository, search and discovery services, rights management services, and user interface portal facilities.

Metadata Quality: From Evaluation to Augmentation

ABSTRACT The conversation about metadata quality has developed slowly in libraries, hindered by unexamined assumptions about metadata carrying over from experience in the MARC environment. In the wider world, discussions about functionality must drive discussions about how quality might be determined and ensured. Because the quality-enforcing structures present in the MARC world–mature standards, common documentation, and bibliographic utilities–are lacking in the metadata world, metadata practitioners desiring to improve the quality of metadata used in their libraries must develop and proliferate their own processes of evaluation and transformation to support essential interoperability. In this article, the author endeavors to describe how those processes might be established and sustained to support metadata quality improvement.

Reconsidering Universal Bibliographic Control in Light of the Semantic Web

The article discusses the future of universal bibliographic control in the context of the Semantic Web. Resource Description Framework RDF), the basis of the Semantic Web, allows the replacement of attempts at one-size-fits-all schema, rules and other international/global standards with what might be termed an all-sizes-fit-one approach, as shown by the example of VIAF (Virtual International Authority File). This approach can support a much richer ecology of bibliographic communities and their standards, achieved by establishing the semantic mapping of individual properties, and sets of properties (or RDF graphs), to form a connected web into which legacy metadata and newly-minted statements can be deposited. Such deposits are made at the natural level of the source standard, preserving local granularity, semantic focus, context, and the data itself, using one-to-one RDF representations of the standard. The web of semantic links then allows this data to be readily assimilated into a universal, web-scale environment which connects all bibliographic metadata as “library linked data”. The article is illustrated with examples drawn from IFLA standards such as FRBR and ISBD, and other international standards such as Dublin Core and RDA.

Metadata Standards and Applications

ABSTRACT Digital versions of the library are proliferating as information becomes ever more electronic. Traditional methods of library cataloging are inadequate to fully describe digital objects in this new dynamic environment. Thus, new standards of metadata are being devised to provide access for objects in digital libraries. These new standards extend beyond mere description; there is also a need to include other metadata functions that provide administrative, access, preservation, and structural information. This preconference provided an overview of newer metadata formats, as well as current trends in the field, and encouraged librarians to engage with their information technology partners to ensure optimal use and development of digital libraries.

Building a Platform to Manage RDA Vocabularies and Data for an International, Linked Data World

The management of vocabularies in the evolving linked data environment requires different tools and processes from those libraries and other memory institutions have used in the past. The RDA (Resource Description and Access) standard has taken the lead in building tools and providing services as part of its RDA Registry development. The evolution of the current RDA Registry and the Open Metadata Registry (OMR), on which the RDA Registry is built, are described, including the rationale for directions, decisions, and ongoing development.

Building a digital teaching commons to enhance teaching, learning and research: The MERIC experience and challenges

This panel is designed 1) to share with the ASIST community the development of an innovative project, MERIC, the Metadata Education and Research Information Center, 2) to discuss MERICs potential for improving and enhancing cataloging and metadata education for LIS students, cataloging practitioners and others involved in metadata projects, and 3) to explore with the audience various issues and challenges related to educating a diverse community of metadata creators and turning MERIC into a virtual teaching commons and research center. MERIC originated from an action plan of the Library of Congress to prepare future information professionals to control digital resources in the 21st century. Initially conceived as a digital information clearinghouse (Hsieh-Yee, 2003), the MERIC Advisory Board recognized the value of a “teaching commons” as recommended by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (Huber and Hutchings, 2005), the need to provide users with the knowledge, skills and tools to process digital resources (Soergel, 2002), and the benefits of collaborative research in this emergent field. The vision and scope of MERIC have evolved beyond a repository for teaching and learning objects to embrace the concept of a collaborative research center and to expand the target audience beyond information professionals to include anyone interested in increasing their metadata knowledge. The project is a joint initiative of the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services and the Association for Library and Information Science Education. As a portal-based information center, the initial objectives of MERIC were to promote understanding of metadata within the LIS community, integrate metadata into LIS education, and encourage metadata research. The next foci of the MERIC project are building a diverse community of users and collaborators and providing fora and tools for collaboration in metadata teaching and research among these communities. As the co-chair of the MERIC Advisory Board, Ingrid Hsieh-Yee will facilitate the discussions. Sherry Vellucci, co-chair of the MERIC Board and a highly respected metadata expert and educator, will present the background and development of MERIC. William E. Moen, a well-known researcher who specializes in metadata, interoperability, and system design, will present the beta version of MERIC and the lessons learned from working with students to develop the prototype. Francis Miksa, a historian of library cataloging and a cataloging educator for more than 30 years, will discuss the challenges of teaching cataloging and metadata and MERICs potential in enhancing such education. Diane Hillmann, another expert in metadata implementation and an experienced educator in building curriculum and materials for metadata education, will discuss the needs of students and practitioners and suggest ways for MERIC to make its resources more readily accessible to users. We will reserve 20 minutes to discuss issues and questions raised by the panel.

Implementing MARC 21 for holdings

SUMMARY Implementing MARC 21 for holdings was a comprehensive line-by-line, field-by-field explanation of the coding and tagging for MARC 21. Participants were given a history of the standards. The pairing relationship of the 853/4/5 and 863/4/5 was explained and the session concluded with hands-on exercises.