Rachel Heery

Metadata : A current view of practice and issues

This paper describes emerging metadata practice and standards. It gives an overview of the environments in which metadata is used, before focusing on metadata for information resources. It outlines an approximate typology of approaches and explores different strands of metadata activity. It discusses trends in format development, metadata management, and use of search and retrieve protocols. It concludes by discussing some features of future deployment of metadata in support of network resource discovery.

Enhancing access to research data: the challenge of crystallography

This paper describes an ongoing collaborative effort across digital library and scientific communities in the UK to improve access to research data. A prototype demonstrator service supporting the discovery and retrieval of detailed results of crystallography experiments has been deployed within an Open Archives digital library service model. Early challenges include the understanding of requirements in this specialized area of chemistry and reaching consensus on the design of a metadata model and schema. Future plans encompass the exploration of commonality and overlap with other schemas and across disciplines, working with publishers to develop mutually beneficial service models, and investigation of the pedagogical benefits. The potential improved access to experimental data to enrich scholarly communication from the perspective of both research and learning provides the driving force to continue exploring these issues

NATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORDS IN THE DIGITAL INFORMATION ENVIRONMENT: METADATA, LINKS AND STANDARDS

This paper reviews BIBLINK, an EC funded project that is attempting to create links between national bibliographic agencies and the publishers of electronic resources. The project focuses on the flow of information, primarily in the form of metadata, between publishers and national libraries. The paper argues that in the digital information environment, the role of national bibliographic agencies will become increasingly dependent upon the generation of electronic links between publishers and other agents in the bibliographic chain. Related work carried out by the Library of Congress with regard to its Electronic CIP Program is described. The core of the paper outlines studies produced by the BIBLINK project as background to the production of a demonstrator that will attempt to establish some of these links. This research includes studies of metadata formats in use and an investigation of the potential for format conversion, including an outline of the BIBLINK Core metadata elements and comments on their potential conversion into UNIMARC. BIBLINK studies on digital identifiers and authentication are also outlined.

JISC metadata schema registry

This paper presents work carried out over the last year on the UK Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) funded metadata schema registry. The registry is being developed as a shared service within the JISC Information Environment (JISC IE) to provide access to information on metadata vocabularies and application profiles used for resource description in the UK learning, teaching & research communities. The Schema Registry will act as the primary source for authoritative information about metadata schemas recommended by the DISC IE Standards Framework. The Registry is targeted at the spectrum of education communities, aiming to provide a service that handles schema based on both the Dublin Core (DC) and IEEE Learning Object Metadata (LOM) formats. The project has as associated partners CETIS and Becta as representatives of user communities

Information Gateways: Collaboration on Content

Information gateways provide targeted discovery services for their users, giving access to Web resources selected according to quality and subject coverage criteria. Information gateways recognise that they must collaborate on a wide range of issues relating to content to ensure continued success. This report is informed by discussion of content activities at the 1999 Imesh Workshop. The author considers the implications for subject based gateways of co‐operation regarding coverage policy, creation of metadata, and provision of searching and browsing across services. Other possibilities for co‐operation include working more closely with information providers, and disclosure of information in joint metadata registries.

Interoperability Across Digital Library Programmes? We Must Have QA!

This paper describes a digital library architecture and implementation that is configurable, extensible and dynamic in the way it presents content and in the services it provides. The design manifests itself as a network of modules that communicate in terms of XML messages. All modules characterize the functionality they implement in response to a “describe yourself” message, and can transform messages using XSLT to support different levels of configurability. Traditional library values such as backwards compatibility and multiplatform operation are combined with the ability to add new collections and services adaptively. The paper describes the new design and shows how it can be used to build four different digital library systems. We conclude by showing how the design fits existing interoperability frameworks.

Does escience need digital libraries

eScience has emerged as an important framework for dramatically rethinking the conduct of scientific research using information technology. There is an unparalleled opportunity for the international eScience and digital library communities to create shared infrastructure to support the conduct of science from end-to-end; i.e., from hypothesis generation, to collecting and analyzing scientific data, to the reporting of research outcomes, and the inclusion of scientific data and models in teaching and learning processes. For this vision to be realized, the two communities must establish a shared vision and research agenda encompassing several critical dimensions, including differences in theoretical and methodological approaches, and collaboration goals. Additionally, for the benefits of eScience and digital libraries to be fully realized, it is vital to establish a shared vision of the broader impact of this work for educators, learners, and the general public.