Metadata standards for library catalogers

TLDR: This is a collection of web addresses for essential resources in the area of metadata standards to assist library catalogers and a starting point for those of us who have embarked on educating ourselves and the authors' staff in these tools.

Abstract: In this, our third ERC Column to appear in CCQ, we present a collection of web addresses for essential resources in the area of metadata standards to assist library catalogers. As we’ve mentioned in other columns, production timelines create inevitable challenges in ensuring the timeliness of the information presented here. Metadata standards are an emerging field, where rapid change and development is continuous. By the time you read this, new standards or practices may have been added to, or have superseded, the list we provide here. Our hope is that this list is a starting point for those of us who have embarked on educating ourselves and our staff in these tools. Why are new and emerging metadata standards of interest to catalogers? Alternative methods for describing digital objects and storing/transmitting data about these objects are useful to explore for a number of reasons. Why metadata? Rapid record production: With the increased development of digital library efforts in many of our libraries, the breadth and variety of “collections,” whether actual or virtual, that catalogers are charged to organize and control is growing quickly. In the digital arena, aggregations of content, whether e-journals, visual images, sound files or e-texts, present