Free-Text Collection-Level Subject Metadata in Large-Scale Digital Libraries: A Comparative Content Analysis

Metadata is central for information organization in digital libraries. A growing number of digital libraries worldwide are now generating metadata to describe not only individual objects but entire digital collections as integral wholes. However, collection-level metadata has not yet been empirically evaluated. This paper reports results of the study that used an in-depth comparative content analysis to assess free-text collection-level subject metadata in three large-scale digital cultural heritage aggregations in the United States and Europe. As observed by this study, the emerging best practices include encoding a variety of information about a digital collection in free-text collection-level Description metadata element. This includes both subject-specific (topical, geographic and temporal coverage, and types/genres of objects in a digital collection) and non-subject-specific information: title, size, provenance, collection development, copyright, audience, navigation and functionality, language of items in a digital collection, frequency of additions, institutions that host a digital collection or contribute to it, funding sources, item creators, importance, uniqueness, and comprehensiveness of a digital collection

Exploring language archiving education for information professionals and interdisciplinary collaboration to support information access

In the past two decades, federal agencies such as National Science Foundation and Institute for Museum and Library Services have extensively supported efforts aimed at preserving and providing online access to unique and valuable collections of language data. However, multiple studies have demonstrated the gap between the way language data is currently organized and represented in digital archives (mostly by the LIS professionals) and understanding of that data -- and how it should be organized and represented -- by data creators and collectors such as language preservation and revitalization researchers, members of language communities. The specifics of information objects collected by language archives and information needs of these collections' end-users are not currently examined in the LIS education. This paper provides a review of the relevant literature, presents some work of our interdisciplinary team of educators, researchers and practitioners to address this gap, and discusses lessons learned and future directions

Role of Collection-Level Subject Metadata in Subject Access to Digital Collections in Aggregations

This presentation discusses collection-level subject metadata in subject access to digital collections in aggregations. This was presented at the 18th International Conference "Libraries and Information Resources in the Modern World of Science, Culture, Education, and Business" in Sudak, Ukraine

What Does Transaction Log Data Tell About Collection-Level Subject Access?

This paper accompanies a poster presented at the 2010 Library Research Seminar V Conference. This paper and the accompanying poster discuss what transaction log data tells us about collection-level subject access

Exploring the richness of collection-level subject metadata in three large-scale digital libraries

This article reports results of a study that used an in-depth comparative content analysis to assess free-text and controlled vocabulary collection-level subject metadata in three large-scale digital libraries in the European Union and the USA

Skill-Building in Online Metadata Instruction: Quality Evaluation of Student-Created Metadata Records

As metadata quality directly affects access to information, training LIS students to create high-quality metadata is an important task. To provide an effective training, a vision is needed for where best to focus the efforts. That vision should be informed by empirical data on the common quality problems in student-created metadata records in relation to the content and methods of instruction. We attempt to address this need through an overview of the metadata creation skill-building content of the online introductory graduate metadata course, results of the analysis of quality in student-created metadata records, and discussion of how the observed common metadata quality issues might inform curriculum development

International Conference on Knowledge Management

Developing, implementing, and managing metadata is crucial to successful knowledge management, and academic libraries have traditionally played a central role in these activities. The Arabian Gulf countries are underrepresented in the existing research into library metadata practices. This exploratory study used semi-structured interviews of metadata managers at 8 universities with the goal of developing understanding of the current state of metadata practices, including descriptive cataloging, identity management, and knowledge organization in academic libraries of three Arabian Gulf countries (Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar), as well as potential future developments to facilitate discovery of resources. Findings provide insights into this previously under-researched area and contribute to understanding of knowledge management and risks on a global scale

Assessing Descriptive Substance in Free-Text Collection-Level Metadata

Collection-level metadata has the potential to provide important information about the features and purpose of individual collections. This paper reports on a content analysis of collection records in an aggregation of cultural heritage collections. The findings show that the free-text Description field often provides more accurate and complete representation of subjects and object types than the specified fields. Properties such as importance, uniqueness, comprehensiveness, provenance, and creator are articulated, as well as other vital contextual information about the intentions of a collector and the value of a collection, as a whole, for scholarly users. The results demonstrate that the semantically rich free-text Description field is essential to understanding the context of collections in large aggregations and can serve as a source of data for enhancing and customizing controlled vocabulariesIMLS NLG Research and Demonstration grant LG-06-07-0020-07published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe

Exploration of Metadata Change in a Digital Repository

This paper presents preliminary results of the ongoing research project that explores the changes occurring in metadata records over time. We use a large regional distributed digital library that versions its metadata records as a target of our study. The preliminary findings i particular reveal what the most prevalent types of metadata change are, which metadata elements receive the most attention from those editing metadata records, and how the types of metadata change vary across metadata elements, etc.ye

Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Digital Language Archives: LangArc 2023

Article for a study aimed to develop understanding of the current state of metadata practices in digital collections of archival institutions in the Arabian Gulf region. It also explored perspectives (including attitudes and possible barriers) for development of large-scale regional portals that would facilitate discovery of Arab digital archives (including language collections) by aggregating metadata. It was presented at the 2nd International Workshop on Digital Language Archives held on June 30, 2023 as part of the ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries 2023