Metadata Tools Research Articles

A virtual reality exploration tool for multi-scale data from brain-scale simulations

We develop a new interface for neuroscientists -ranging from theoreticians to experimentalists and medical scientists- to explore and interact with brain-scale simulations. The initial phase describes the development of a virtual reality (VR) environment capable of interacting with simulated activity data of networks that comprise local and long-range connectivity: Based on the initial deployment of the VR system including basic functionality to visualize spiking and subthreshold activity of single neurons in multiple cortical areas, we design a framework to allow for the interaction with meta-data and analysis tools.

A Checklist and a Case for Documenting PREMIS-METS Decisions in a METS Profile

Shared metadata practices foster preservation and interoperability in several ways. They facilitate inter-repository exchange, the development of reusable metadata tools, and repository self-assessments and audits. Despite the benefits of shared practices, there has been little convergence on best practices for a widely used metadata strategy, PREMIS in METS. This paper proposes documenting PREMIS-METS decisions in METS profiles as a beneficial internal practice and an efficient way of sharing and comparing metadata strategies, thereby facilitating best practices. The paper then introduces a tool to help implementers document PREMIS-METS decisions in a METS profile. This tool is a checklist of 13 key PREMIS-METS issues that a repository should consider documenting in their METS profiles. Each of the 13 issues is illustrated with examples from METS profiles currently registered with the Library of Congress

User-Centric Development of New Metadata Tools to Enhance File-Based Newsgathering Workflows

The inevitable adoption of nonlinear acquisition and storage devices will enable broadcasters to accomplish a complete file-based workflow from capture through to archive. These devices not only reduce time by removing the need for tape-to-file conversions but also facilitate a complete metadata flow throughout the production. This metadata is important because, if captured effectively, it allows files to be accurately identified and presents exciting opportunities for improving the overall speed and efficiency of newsgathering operations. Sony's research and development (R&D) team is working with news organizations throughout the world to gain an accurate understanding of the newsgathering workflows being employed. In addition, the most useful metadata for these tasks, the possibilities for metadata capture, and the best ways in which the metadata may be utilized to support people and their tasks are identified. This paper describes work in R&D to understand the newsgathering workflow and how this knowledge is being used to guide the development of novel tools to improve the effectiveness of future products.

The user‐centered design of a non‐specialist metadata tool and interface for the Internet Public Library

AbstractGood quality metadata are key in supporting user interactions with a repository. Poor quality metadata hide resources, produce poor search results, and negatively affect user satisfaction (Barton et al. 2004; Beall 2005; Geisler et al. 2002). Good quality metadata can be resource‐intensive to produce, and as a result there is a ‘metadata generation bottleneck’ between the growing numbers of digital resources requiring description and the limited numbers of metadata specialists who can create such descriptions (Liddy et al., 2001). This can restrict metadata production and reduce the utility of repositories (Wilson, 2007). Approaches to addressing this bottleneck include training more metadata specialists; automatic metadata generation (Liddy et al., 2001; Ochoa & Duval n.d.); and also the solution discussed in this poster, the user‐centered design and development of a tool to support student volunteers and interns to engage in the creation and quality control of Dublin Core metadata records for the Internet Public Library (IPL: http://www.ipl.org/).

New tools to support collaboration and virtual organizations

We describe the use of new eScience tools to support collaboration, including the use of XML data representations to support shared viewing of the information content of data, metadata tools for documenting data and Web 2.0 social networking tools for documenting ideas and the collaboration process. This latter work has led to the development of the http://SciSpace.net Web resource.

MPEG‐7 tools for Universal Multimedia Access

AbstractUniversal Multimedia Access (UMA) deals with seamless access to once‐only‐created content via any kind of terminal and any kind of network connectivity, which implies that the content should be adapted in order to fit a variety of terminal and network characteristics, as well as user preferences. The MPEG‐7 standard offers some support for UMA within its section on Multimedia Description Schemes (MDS). Within the standard, several groups of tools serve this purpose. For instance, the Navigation and Access Tools provide some Description Schemes that allow the description of adapted content variations and summaries and allow for preprocessed content versions. Some support is also found in the Content Metadata Tools (Media and Usage Tools), for real‐time ease in creation of online content versions and in limited support for session description, which is completed in MPEG‐21.

Metadata Management Design

SUMMARY This session, presented by Nathan Rupp, focused on creating a central repository at Cornell University for metadata tools. Rupp hopes that by implementing a repository for metadata tools digital projects librarians across campus will be able to utilize the best tools available instead of recreating tools or spending time searching via telephone for tools. This process will be revolutionary, bringing together all of Cornell's libraries. It will create an efficient and valuable repository to facilitate better metadata management.

Encoding controlled vocabularies for the Semantic Web using SKOS Core

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to introduce digital librarians to a new encoding standard for developing semantically‐rich controlled vocabularies which will enhance searching of digital content.Design/methodology/approachLiterature‐based review.FindingsSKOS Core serves as an efficient and practical segue from traditional knowledge organization systems such as thesauri and classification systems to more complex and logic‐driven Semantic Web languages.Practical implicationsLibrarians with a need to provide semantically‐rich access to digital resources will find SKOS Core a useful addition to their metadata tool kits.Originality/valueProvides a useful and practical introduction to a new Semantic Web tool which should be of great interest to librarians tasked with integrating knowledge organization systems into digital libraries.

A Teacher Friendly Environment to Foster Learner-Centered Customization in the Development of Interactive Educational Packages

A good teacher is able to customize the lesson to fit the requirements and needs of the learners he or she has in the classroom. This process becomes difficult and expensive in open and distance education, where customization means availability of similar contents, presented in diversified styles. A methodology and the tools to tackle the problem by using automated course compilation have been developed in the 3DE project (Design, Development, and Delivery-Electronic Environment for Educational Multimedia). The work on course customization showed the key role of the authoring process and the related problems. This paper summarizes the methodology and describes the development environment designed to assist authors in the creation of customized educational material. The environment seeks to help teachers/authors understand the relations among pedagogical and technical aspects and provides instructions, guidelines, and assistance for the development of learning-styles-aware material. The paper focuses on the author interface of the environment with details on the pedagogical framework, the authors' guide, the classification guide, and the metadata tool.

Create Once, Use Many Times: The Clever Use of Recordkeeping Metadata for Multiple Archival Purposes

Metadata is a key component in the creation, management and preservation of electronic records, as well as their innovative use as archives, memory and knowledge. However metadata generation and deployment are currently resource intensive and application specific. Metadata creation is not usually fully automated. Metadata created in one application of potential relevance to other applications is not shared between applications. Although data modeling, mark up language and syntax initiatives are addressing the data representation requirements for metadata translation and exchange, this functionality has not as yet been utilized in the systems that support eGovernment and eBusiness processes, electronic recordkeeping and archival description. Moreover there has been little progress in relation to developing strategies and meta-tools for the translation of metadata attributes and values between schemas in these environments. The Monash Clever Recordkeeping Metadata (CRKM) project addresses the challenge of automating metadata creation and sharing metadata between business systems, current recordkeeping systems and archival systems. This paper explores the relevance of the CRKM project to future archival systems and the deployment of metadata for multiple archival purposes. It is presented as part of the Smart Metadata and the Archives of the Future session that aims to communicate the progress and findings of several inter-related collaborative research projects and standards initiatives. Other papers in the session report on the related work of the InterPARES 2 Description Research Team (Designing a Meta-Registry for the Registration, Analysis and Archival Extension of Pre-Existing Metadata), the San Diego Supercomputing Center’s development of Persistent Archives Technology (Metadata Tools and Sustainable Archives Technologies), and the ISO Metadata for Records Standard (Smart Metadata Research and International Standards).

Museums in the Online Archive of California (MOAC): Building Digital Collections Across Libraries and Museums

Providing a context for establishment of the Museum Online Archive of California (MOAC) project funded by IMLS, this article describes the history and recent development of the Online Archive of California (OAC) and its mandate to create digital content and make it accessible online. The article explores the contributions of MOAC to the OAC including pioneering implementation of EAD in the museum community, development of standards and best practices, creation of metadata tools, and inclusion of complex digital objects.

Mantis Project

The Mantis project is developing a toolkit for building Web-based cataloging systems with arbitrary metadata definitions and interfaces. By requiring that end users have only standard Web browsers, the project is aimed at lowering the barriers to acceptance, distribution, and use of these tools. By emphasizing that metadata can assume many different formats, the project shows that generalized metadata tools can be used for many applications.

Bridging the digital divide: State government as content provider, the Illinois experience

Three National Leadership Grants (NLG) (http://www.imls.gov/grants/library/lib_nlgl.asp) from the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) provide the foundation for the Program (http://finditillinois.org) at the State Library (ISL): Grant One: Exporting Washington State's (October 1998-September 1999) Grant Two: Find-It! Illinois (October 1999-September 2001) Grant Three: Metadata Tools for State Collaboration (October 1999-September 2001) Based on the successful Government Information Locator Service (GILS) program at the Washington State Library (WSL) (http://find-it.state.wa.us/compass), the ISL began a GILS program of its own in the fall of 1999. State-level GILS projects around the country, based at state libraries and some state archives, are distilled from the federal GILS model (http://www.gils.net/). State GILS programs provide a resource discovery methodology for electronic state government information. Each program includes components for access, organization, design, standard metadata creation, state agency Webmaster education and training, and interface development. Essentially, the state libraries and archives involved in these projects act as clearinghouses for and gateways to electronic state government information. Grant One, awarded to the WSL, provided the ISL and three other state libraries, (Oregon, New Hampshire, and Arizona), with the model framework for starting a GILS program. Grant Two, awarded to the ISL, provided development dollars for the fledgling ISL program Illinois. Grant Three, awarded to the WSL and contracted in part to the ISL, provides funding for the enhancement of metadata interoperability and the application of a consortial subject tree. In Illinois, providing access to electronic state government content is manifest not only in the establishment of the ISL GILS program, but also in the creation of the other databases that comprise the portal. Interoperability among these virtual libraries will be enhanced by the application of a single controlled vocabulary for subject searching, called the Tree. Additionally, work is underway to establish the Jessica Tree as the standard list for state GILS programs with the goal of promoting interstate interoperable subject searching.

Teaching an information organization course with Nordic DC metadata creator

Exploration and use of Dublin Core metadata tools in a graduate library course, Organization of Information, suggests applications of these tools in similar courses as an introduction to cataloging. Students used the Nordic DC metadata creator to catalog and classify both Internet and traditional information objects. Because links available from the Nordic DC metadata creator and Dublin Core home pages make cataloging resource materials easily available, students had less difficulty integrating their knowledge and those resources to create cataloging records than their counterparts in prior courses did. Practice with the Dublin Core tools, observation of their use by student catalogers, and the potential for gaining experience with more sophisticated tools available in the Cooperative Online Resource Catalog (CORC) project encouraged Bowling Green State University to participate in CORC.

Collecting for the researcher in an electronic environment

Against the historical background of the growth of research collections, the scale of developing electronic information is examined, along with its implications for established principles and practice in collection building and service delivery. Existing practices must extend and ultimately change to accommodate the different nature of electronic information. Aspects discussed include selection criteria, effective resource discovery, and the role of metadata and electronic search tools. New developments in resources sharing are indicated. Changes in the physical environment of research collections are discussed, along with the current uncertainties about disposal of hard copy in favour of electronic formats. The need for sound technical planning and support is noted, and the new demands on information specialists are identified. These relate particularly to services which offer advice, guidance and value‐added provision for the researcher. The article concludes that research collections are becoming hybrid resources, extending and enhancing provision for the research community.