SPEC Kit 298: Metadata (July 2007)
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Metadata · 11 Executive Summary Introduction Metadata is often called “data about data.” It has been used by various communities creating geo- spatial data, social and scientific datasets, enter- prise applications, data warehouses, educational resources, and bibliographic data. In the traditional library world, catalog records are metadata, as they contain information about the library’s collection of “data,” i.e., the books and journals that make up its collections. Increasingly, libraries have been adopt- ing emerging metadata standards such as Dublin Core, EAD, MODS, and TEI to describe, discover, preserve, manage, and provide access to electronic resources and digital objects. This is accomplished through three types of metadata: descriptive meta- data that describes the intellectual content of the object structural metadata that ties each object to others to make up logical units and administrative metadata that manages the object or controls access to it. This SPEC survey investigated how metadata is implemented in ARL member libraries: which staff are creating metadata and for what kinds of digital objects, what schemas and tools they use to create and manage metadata, what skills metadata staff need and how they acquire them, and the organi- zational changes and challenges that metadata has brought to libraries. Background This survey was distributed to the 123 ARL mem- ber libraries in February 2007. Sixty-eight libraries (55%) responded to the survey, of which 67 (99%) reported creating metadata for digital objects at their institutions. One respondent started as early as 1989 and five followed in the subsequent five years. The first sharp increase occurred in 1995 and 1996, when 11 additional libraries began metadata activities. This increase coincided with the creation of the Dublin Core metadata standard at a March 1995 invitational workshop held in Dublin, Ohio. Between 1998 and 2001, 30 more libraries began creating metadata. The activity reached a peak at the turn of the millennium, with 10 libraries enter- ing the metadata arena in 2000. Another peak in 2003, with nine start-ups, followed the availability of DSpace and other institutional repository soft- ware. The final five start-ups began between 2004 and 2007. Metadata Projects and Practices The primary factor driving the creation of metadata is the responding libraries’ involvement in digitiza- tion projects (66 of 67 responses or 99%). Metadata also plays an important role in institutional re- positories (54%). Other initiatives and projects that have promoted the use of metadata are: Web con- tent management, datasets, subject-based and edu-