Metadata Blog

This announcement is courtesy of Laura Cox.

Paris, 20th April 2009, OECD has released a white paper, We Need Publishing Standards for Datasets and Data Tables, which examines the problems with current data discoverability and citations and the remedy in creating industry standards for bibliographic dataset metadata and linking.

Written by Toby Green, Head of Publishing at OECD and an expert in data publishing, the paper details the problems with user ability to locate and reference online data. Datasets are a significant part of the scholarly record and being published much more frequently but with widely inconsistent metadata, links and citations. The paper proposes bibliographic metadata standards that could be implemented to provide users and librarians with data that is as accessible and as easy to find and catalogue as written works like journal articles and book chapters. By following existing scholarly metadata standards, datasets can easily utilise the existing discovery channels that are used by e-journals and e-books, including library systems, cross reference linking, publishing platforms, and search engines.

The paper provides straightforward standards that publishers, librarians and data providers can implement to improve the accessibility and usage of important datasets, both the data that underlies scholarly works and data in that is published in its own right. To access the white paper, We Need Publishing Standards for Datasets and Data Tables, which includes a summary of the standards proposed and an annex with the detailed proposal, please go to: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/603233448430.

For further information please contact Toby Green at toby.green@oecd.org.

Myung-Ja (MJ) Han, Metadata Librarian, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is working on a survey to learn about how other catalog departments are handling changes in their cataloging department and the responsibilities of metadata librarians. Before sending out the survey, she is soliciting feedback on the survey questions. The draft of the survey is available below, and suggestions can be emailed to mhan3@uiuc.edu.

1. In what institution do you work?
a. Academic library
b. School library
c. Public library
d. Museum
e. Archives
f. Other: _______________________

2. Which units are involved in digital library development and production? (Please choose all that apply.)
a. Cataloging Unit
b. Information Technology (IT) or Systems Department
c. Preservation Department
d. Collection Development
e. Other (Please list the units.)________________________________

3. If your library or institution has a separate unit for digital library development and production, please answer the following questions:
• When (what year) did the unit get established?
• What is its organizational affiliation?

• Part of Technical Services Division
• Part of IT/Systems
• Other (please give details.)

• How many staff are in the unit?
• Please list the types of position.

4. If Cataloging Unit participates in digital library development, what are its mains tasks? (Please choose all that apply.)
a. Metadata creation and management
b. Policy making (including Best Practices)
c. Consultation
d. Training staff who create/maintain metadata
e. Other (Please list the tasks.)______________________________________

5. How many Metadata Librarians (including Metadata/Cataloging Librarians) do you have in your institution? If you have any, when was the position created with the current title?

6. Which units does the metadata librarian(s) belong to? (Please choose all that apply.)
a. Cataloging
b. Digital Library unit
c. Shared between Cataloging and Digital Library unit
d. Other (please give details.)________________________________________

7. What are the main tasks of the metadata librarian(s)? (Please choose all that apply.)
a. MARC record creation
b. Non-MARC record creation (Descriptive, Technical, Administrative, and Preservation metadata)
c. Training
d. Creating Best Practices
e. Consulting
f. Metadata management including normalization and augmentation using style sheets
g. Other (Please list the tasks.)_______________________________________

8. How many people are involved in metadata creation and management other than Metadata/Cataloging Librarian(s)?

9. Do you have any IT personnel in Cataloging Unit?
If so, how many of them are full time and how many of them are part time?

10. What are the main tasks for them in Cataloging Unit?

11. What are the three most difficult challenges your Cataloging Unit has faced thus far? (For example, developing new workflows, dealing with new formats of material, lack of resources and etc.)

12. Please specify some of the changes your institution made to meet those challenges in the last three years.

13. What do you think your organization, Cataloging Unit in particular, need the most to meet those challenges?
a. Skilled staff
b. Best Practices and workflow
c. Funding
d. Re-organization
e. Other

Thank you so much!
*Please contact MJ Han (mhan3@illinois.edu) for any feedback about this survey.

Welcome to Metadata Blog v 1.0! Hi, I'm Brian Surratt, chair of the Networked Resources and Metadata Interest Group, aka NRMIG (and in case you've never been to one of our events, it's pronounced NER-mig). This is our first official foray into blogging and we hope it becomes and important source of information for the metadata community. We already have a number of members who will be contributing during ALA Midwinter 2007, but that is just the beginning. Through the many and varied activities of our members, we will maintain Metadata Blog as a service to metadata practitioners everywhere.

If you have an interest in metadata and want to share your experiences, please contact us! Our blog coordinator, Jen Wolfe, can be contacted at jennifer-wolfe@uiowa.edu. If you have a general question about NRMIG or would like more information about our activities, feel free to contact me at besurratt@rice.edu. Thanks for checking us out!

Brian Surratt