Menu

About

In Scotland, as in the rest of the developed world, digital repositories - large and small - are something of a growth area. Hardcopy materials are being digitized to improve access, collections of electronic course materials are being developed for learners, born-digital materials of all kinds - from 'digital essays' to scientific papers - are being created and made available by public, university, college and other libraries, by museums, by archives, by electronic services of various kinds, and by a range of other repository hosts too numerous to list.

At present, little is being done - either in Scotland or anywhere else - to co-ordinate approaches to the provision of the complex metadata required to manage these repositories and the digital materials they contain. As a result, we are in danger of repeating the mistakes of the past and creating an 'interoperability deficit' that will diminish the extent to which we can offer Scottish users seamless, flexible, long-term access to the distributed digital collection as it develops. Online catalogues covering hardcopy resources grew up in isolation from one another in much the same way as digital repositories are developing now. As a result, the descriptive metadata used to describe hardcopy materials interoperates poorly in a distributed catalogue like CAIRNS and the problem, for the most part, is now too expensive to fix (except on a long term basis).

The metadata required to manage digital objects (particularly the complex digital composites that are increasingly the rule rather than the exception) is far more complex than that required for hardcopy materials. In addition to descriptive metadata, adequate management of digital objects requires, or can require, technical metadata, rights metadata, analog and digital source metadata, files metadata, structural metadata, and behavioural metadata. The potential for interoperability problems, and the likely cost of fixing them retrospectively, is therefore large. The need to establish standards and agree best practice guidelines is therefore significant.

Project Aims
Based at the Centre for Digital Library Research and funded by the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC), the CMS Metadata Interoperability project aims to establish, document, and disseminate guidelines for best practice in the choice and use of CMS metadata for the management of simple and complex digital objects in an interoperable Scottish Common Information Environment.

Objectives
o To conduct desk research on the international position as regards knowledge in digital repository management and associated metadata issues;
o To carry out a survey of Scottish institutions addressing issues in this area, focusing particularly on those using or planning to use CMS;
o To work with the various interested communities in Scotland to compile guidelines for best practice in respect of choosing overarching standards (METS, IMS-CP, MPEG-21), choosing standards for particular metadata categories (e.g. e-GMS, MARC, DC for descriptive metadata), choosing standards for particular digital object types (e.g. LC extension schemas for audio or video), dealing with metadata content and terminology, and so on;
o To actively include the various interested professional groups in the process to ensure that project conclusions on the guidelines are consensual;
o To disseminate information about the project and its outcomes as widely as possible to ensure widespread participation in project consultations.

The project will work with SLIC, and in the context of CoSMiC , and consult major players in the area, but will also seek to identify other 'players' to ensure wide applicability.

Project Partners
Scottish Museums Council; National Library of Scotland