A focus of digital libraries, particularly since the advent of the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting, is aggregating from multiple collections metadata describing digital content. However, the quality and interoperability of the metadata often prevents such aggregations from offering much more than very simple search and discovery services. Shareable metadata is metadata which can be understood and used outside of its local environment by aggregators to provide more advanced services. This
Purpose -Seeks to share with digital library practitioners the development process of an online image collection that integrates the syndetic structure of a controlled vocabulary to improve end-user search and browse functionality. Design/methodology/approach -Surveys controlled vocabulary structures and their utility for catalogers and end-users. Reviews research literature and usability findings that informed the specifications for integration of the controlled vocabulary structure into search and browse functionality. Discusses database functions facilitating query expansion using a controlled vocabulary structure, and web application handling of user queries and results display. Concludes with a discussion of open-source alternatives and reuse of database and application components in other environments. Findings -Affirms that structured forms of browse and search can be successfully integrated into digital collections to significantly improve the user's discovery experience. Establishes ways in which the technologies used in implementing enhanced search and browse functionality can be abstracted to work in other digital collection environments. Originality/value -Significant amounts of research on integrating thesauri structures into search and browse functionalities exist, but examples of online resources that have implemented this approach are few in comparison. The online image collection surveyed in this paper can serve as a model to other designers of digital library resources for integrating controlled vocabularies and metadata structures into more dynamic search and browse functionality for end-users.
The notion of "shareable" metadata has recently emerged in the cultural heritage community as a result of increased expectations for making descriptive metadata openly available. Archivists, too, must work to create shareable metadata if archives are to remain viable in a continually evolving information environment. This paper discusses the issues involved in applying shareable metadata principles to archival description, describes strategies and tools for creating shareable archival descriptive metadata, and considers emerging trends in metadata sharing. The authors also outline further recommendations for action by the archival community. A n E v o l v i n g V i s i o n o f A r c h i v a l D e s c r i p t i o n Descriptive practices are a hot topic of discussion within the archival community. Daniel Pitti describes this current activity as a fundamental rethinking, originally motivated by technological change: "The opportunities for improving archival practices and services presented by computers and network technology have inspired archivists to engage in a new analysis of archival description." 1 This is not to say that technology on its own is responsible for recent developments in the field, but rather that technological developments have helped to motivate a new vision of what can be accomplished with more standardized archival description. Archivists have joined together to develop and revise community-based standards for finding aids to promote better discovery and delivery of archival descriptions to end users.
This study analyzes metadata shared by cultural heritage institutions via the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting. The syntax and semantics of metadata appearing in the Dublin Core fields creator, contributor, and date are examined. Preliminary conclusions are drawn regarding the effectiveness of Dublin Core in the Open Archives Initiative environment for cultural heritage materials.
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