Riley, Jenn. "Implementing Shareable Metadata Practices in a Diverse University Environment" Society for American Archivists Annual Meeting, August 31, 2007, Chicago, IL

1. Implementing Shareable
Metadata Practices in a Diverse
University Environment
Jenn Riley
Metadata Librarian
Indiana University Digital Library Program

2. An vision for shareable metadata
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Many robust discovery environments that can
easily exchange diverse metadata
Workflows at Universities that easily bring
together metadata for resources from
libraries, archives, etc.
Large-scale, multi-institution aggregations
that do the same
…and online delivery of content too, but let’s
not get too far ahead of ourselves
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3. Challenges for archives
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“Archives” not a homogeneous body so a
single workflow likely not possible
Expanding view of mission
Finding the resources
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Appropriate description
Technical implementation
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4. Challenges for digital libraries
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Digital library practice assumes content
digitized
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Metadata-only workflows not common
Digital library practice assumes item-level
description
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In University DL departments
In metadata aggregations
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5. The core descriptive challenge
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EAD is not a metadata format.
EAD is a markup language.
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It marks up the finding aid as a document
A finding aid is a narrative, not just an inventory
The structure of finding aids can vary among
diverse collections
Let’s assume we have EAD-encoded finding
aids for all collections we want to share
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6. The good news
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Aggregations not intended to replace
archives-focused discovery mechanisms, but
rather to supplement them
General-purpose aggregations therefore do
not need to make use of all the nuances of
archival description
Your local environment can provide the
robust services you want
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Interpretation of resources
Mediation of access
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7. Key shareable metadata principles for
archives
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Context
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Need enough so that the user of an aggregation
can make a decision about whether or not to
follow a link to the local environment
Too much repeated information can pose
challenges for the aggregation and the user
Content
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What is the appropriate granularity for shared
records from archives?
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8. Some possible strategies
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Collection-level records only
Aggregators that understand multi-level
description
Design multi-level description carefully for
future item/file-level view
Link to digital object from the lowest level of
description in finding aid, and use external
system to provide more granular description
Describe at the item level
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9. Implications for EAD workflow
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Because EAD encoding practice can differ so
widely, decisions about flattening the
structure best made locally rather than by an
aggregator
Adding additional uses for EAD files makes it
all the more important that they’re done well
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10. Experiences at IU (1)
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New EAD site
<http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/findingaids/>
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New system more faithful to encoding, with less
“helpful” fixed presentation
Mutual learning process about archival descriptive
practices
Many decisions made about when encoding
should be changed and when system should be
changed
Results of this process: re-engineering! New
template, report card, better previewing capability
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11. Experiences at IU (2)
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Some EAD files link to digital objects (more
soon).
Soon, item-level OAI records (DC and
MODS) for digitized items from finding aids
Central DL repository that allows EAD as the
master metadata format
Workflow that allows links from any level of a
multi-level description in EAD
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12. What archives in Universities can do
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Build archival-specific aggregators
Implement OAI data providers
Talk to DL people about multi-level description
Put more materials online
Put EAD site in your institution’s federated search
Share finding aids with services such as ArchiveGrid
Lobby software vendors for better support of EAD
Implement EAC and other means of sharing
authorities
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13. Learning from one another
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Item-centric view can be too narrow, but can
help the re-engineering process
More structure in finding aids can be a good
thing
Archives can show libraries why expertise in
descriptive practice is still necessary
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14. Thank you!
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Jenn Riley, jenlrile@indiana.edu
These presentation slides:
<http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/~jenlrile/presentations/saa2007/>
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Metadata For You & Me: A Training Program
for Shareable Metadata
<http://images.library.uiuc.edu/projects/mym/>
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