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International federation of library associations and institutions

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Perceptions of libraries and information resources: a report to the OCLC membership

The Measurement and Evaluation of Library Services

Institutional repositories are a relatively new activity for higher education They are defined most often as a set of services that are offered by an institution for the management and dissemination of digital materials created by the members of the institution or scholarly community This article will describe the challenges institutions are facing in creating repositories, will explore the economics of managing repositories, and will offer a model for creating a successful set of service

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Institutional Repositories: Keys to Success

Professional development programs include short courses, certificates and license reviews, with some leading to the award of continuing education units (CEUs). The CEU is used nationally to document the type, quality and duration of study. In general, a CEU is defined as being equal to classroom hours. All professional development courses can be adapted to meet a particular organization’s needs and conducted as a custom-designed training program at a company site. For more than 50 years, NJIT has been designing and conducting high-quality professional development programs that meet organizations’ business needs. Since 1990, NJIT has trained over 63,000 professionals as part of over 550 training initiatives for 300 different companies conducting business in New Jersey.

Continuing professional education

This study explores the current state of metadata-creation practices across digital repositories and collections by using data collected from a nationwide survey of mostly cataloging and metadata professionals. Results show that MARC, AACR2, and LCSH are the most widely used metadata schema, content standard, and subjectcontrolled vocabulary, respectively. Dublin Core (DC) is the second most widely used metadata schema, followed by EAD, MODS, VRA, and TEI. Qualified DC’s wider use vis-a-vis Unqualified DC (40.6 percent versus 25.4 percent) is noteworthy. The leading criteria in selecting metadata and controlled-vocabulary schemata are collection-specific considerations, such as the types of resources, nature of the collection, and needs of primary users and communities. Existing technological infrastructure and staff expertise also are significant factors contributing to the current use of metadata schemata and controlled vocabularies for subject access across distributed digital repositories and collections. Metadata interoperability remains a major challenge. There is a lack of exposure of locally created metadata and metadata guidelines beyond the local environments. Homegrown locally added metadata elements may also hinder metadata interoperability across digital repositories and collections when there is a lack of sharable mechanisms for locally defined extensions and variants.

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Metadata Creation Practices in Digital Repositories and Collections: Schemata, Selection Criteria, and Interoperability

This article evaluates practices on metadata quality control in digital repositories and collections using an online survey of cataloging and metadata professionals in the United States. The study examines (1) the perceived importance of metadata quality, (2) metadata quality evaluation criteria and issues, and (3) mechanisms for building quality assurance into the metadata creation process. The survey finds wide recognition of the essential role of metadata quality assurance. Accuracy and consistency are prioritized as the main criteria for metadata quality evaluation. Metadata semantics greatly affects consistent and accurate metadata application. Strong awareness of metadata quality correlates with the widespread adoption of various quality control mechanisms, such as staff training, manual review, metadata guidelines, and metadata generation tools. And yet, metadata guidelines are used less frequently as a quality assurance mechanism in digital collections involving multiple institutions.

Metadata Quality Control in Digital Repositories and Collections: Criteria, Semantics, and Mechanisms

Resource Description & Access (RDA) is intended to provide a flexible and extensible framework that can accommodate all types of content and media within rapidly evolving digital environments while also maintaining compatibility with the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd edition (AACR2). The cataloging community is grappling with practical issues in navigating the transition from AACR2 to RDA; there is a definite need to evaluate major subject areas and broader themes in information organization under the new RDA paradigm. This article aims to accomplish this task through a thorough and critical review of the emerging RDA literature published from 2005 to 2011. The review mostly concerns key areas of difference between RDA and AACR2, the relationship of the new cataloging code to metadata standards, the impact on encoding standards such as Machine-Readable Cataloging (MARC), end user considerations, and practitioners' views on RDA implementation and training. Future research will require more in-depth studies of RDA's expected benefits and the manner in which the new cataloging code will improve resource retrieval and bibliographic control for users and catalogers alike over AACR2. The question as to how the cataloging community can best move forward to the post-AACR2/MARC environment must be addressed carefully so as to chart the future of bibliographic control in the evolving environment of information production, management, and use.

RDA: Resource description & access—a survey of the current state of the art

Content-enriched metadata in bibliographic records is considered helpful to library users in identifying and selecting library materials for their needs. The paper presents a study, using circulation data from a medium-sized academic library, of the effect of content-enriched records on library materials usage. The study also examines OPAC search transactions of circulated items to learn how enriched metadata is used. The findings show that enhanced records were overall associated with higher circulation rates and that keyword search was the most frequently used search option directly associated with circulation. Contents data can play a key role in discovery. Libraries should continue to provide and exploit content-enriched metadata. The combination of optimal library system data mining capability, postsearching evaluation, and OPAC display are crucial to achieve content-enriched access.

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Reexamining Content-Enriched Access: Its Effect on Usage and Discovery

This study aims to examine the current state and needs of continuing education among cataloging and metadata professionals regarding metadata creation and management. Using nationwide survey data, the study finds an active interest in pursuing training and education opportunities on a wide variety of metadata-related topics. The survey results indicate, however, that some professional education needs are not being met by the type of training the respondents have received. In particular, there is strong interest in receiving training in topics relating to planning and management for metadata application, such as metadata quality control mechanisms and documentation, as well as training materials providing hands-on, practical solutions and guidance in an implementation environment. The survey also indicates a strong interest in short courses, including online programs, that are affordable, flexible, and practical for professionals in the field. Keywords: metadata, metadata quality control, catalogers, metadata professionals, continuing education, needs assessment Introduction The ever-growing universe of digital library projects demands a broad community of information professionals with the up-to-date knowledge, skills and competencies needed to address new challenges in metadata creation and management. The rapid growth of digital repositories has led to an acute awareness of metadata as the principal building block in facilitating effective resource description, access, and sharing. New metadata standards and digital library technologies are being developed at a rapid pace as diverse communities of practice seek new ways to organize massive quantities of digital resources. The pace of change in the metadata environment creates an increased demand for continuing education programs that are designed to allow cataloging and metadata professionals to stay up-to-date with current and emerging standards and technologies for describing networked and digital resources. The need for ongoing professional education is made even stronger by the collaborative, decentralized nature of bibliographic control in the twenty-first century. As evidenced in On the record: Report of the Library of Congress Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control (2008), the evolving digital information and technology environment will likely require more active collaboration of the library and information communities as data are increasingly mined and shared from multiple information providers for resource discovery and sharing. Such data sharing and access across ever-growing distributed digital repositories and collections are derived from the creation of interoperable metadata based on accurate, complete and consistent resource description. In turn, factors hindering shared notions of metadata quality are also in part derived from resource constraints related to staff expertise, educational tools, and opportunities among institutions and communities implementing metadata projects. Research on continuing education needs is therefore needed to build a network of competent information professionals with the requisite knowledge, skills, and competencies to create, manage, and exchange quality metadata in a digital environment. This study aims to examine the prevailing perspectives and interests of cataloging and metadata professionals regarding continuing education in metadata creation and management. While traditional library cataloging remains the principal responsibility expected from cataloging professionals, emerging knowledge and skill sets are increasingly being integrated into the core technical aspects of cataloging (Park, Lu, & Marion, 2009). Therefore, it is essential for this study to evaluate the continuing education needs of cataloging professionals and metadata professionals inasmuch as they play a major role in metadata creation and digital library projects within their own institutions (Park and Lu, 2009). …

Yuji Tosaka

Papers

Metadata Creation Practices in Digital Repositories and Collections: Schemata, Selection Criteria, and Interoperability

Metadata Quality Control in Digital Repositories and Collections: Criteria, Semantics, and Mechanisms

RDA: Resource description & access—a survey of the current state of the art

Reexamining Content-Enriched Access: Its Effect on Usage and Discovery

From Metadata Creation to Metadata Quality Control: Continuing Education Needs Among Cataloging and Metadata Professionals