Turning Back the Clock: Retrofitting Metadata in Legacy Digital Collections
Location
KIPJ G
Session Type
Event
Start Date
29-4-2015 1:00 PM
End Date
29-4-2015 1:45 PM
Abstract
Digital collections that highlight unique holdings of special collections and archives have become the norm in academic institutions. Many of these collections, however, were created prior to the establishment of general best practices or content standards for metadata creation. In addition, the rapid popularity and growth of digital collections often involved multiple metadata creators with little oversight, or metadata that was quickly “thrown together” and therefore incomplete. Without a metadata update, many of the holdings within older collections may become more difficult or even impossible to discover. Institutions are faced with metadata challenges in many of their legacy collections that contain valuable digital images and information.
This presentation will address common problems that occur in older digital collections, and suggest strategies on how to repair, enhance, and/or update metadata for legacy digital objects. This will include inconsistent metadata in large digital collections or smaller digital collections that were merged together, incomplete or sparse metadata for collections that were grown too quickly, or collections that were not curated well and include too many similar or duplicate images. Continuously growing collections that have involved several metadata creators and changing guidelines will also be discussed. In addition to addressing legacy collections, tips on metadata maintenance for digital collections will be offered.
A review on the strategies used to audit and refine problematic legacy metadata for various digital collections will also be offered in this presentation. Guidelines will be offered on how to identify collections that need to be retrofitted and how to efficiently go about enhancing and revising metadata for older digital objects. Using examples, guidance will also be provided on how to effectively establish best practices, and create indexing guidelines and detailed procedures to effectively maintain existing collections and create new ones.
Turning Back the Clock: Retrofitting Metadata in Legacy Digital Collections
KIPJ G
Digital collections that highlight unique holdings of special collections and archives have become the norm in academic institutions. Many of these collections, however, were created prior to the establishment of general best practices or content standards for metadata creation. In addition, the rapid popularity and growth of digital collections often involved multiple metadata creators with little oversight, or metadata that was quickly “thrown together” and therefore incomplete. Without a metadata update, many of the holdings within older collections may become more difficult or even impossible to discover. Institutions are faced with metadata challenges in many of their legacy collections that contain valuable digital images and information.
This presentation will address common problems that occur in older digital collections, and suggest strategies on how to repair, enhance, and/or update metadata for legacy digital objects. This will include inconsistent metadata in large digital collections or smaller digital collections that were merged together, incomplete or sparse metadata for collections that were grown too quickly, or collections that were not curated well and include too many similar or duplicate images. Continuously growing collections that have involved several metadata creators and changing guidelines will also be discussed. In addition to addressing legacy collections, tips on metadata maintenance for digital collections will be offered.
A review on the strategies used to audit and refine problematic legacy metadata for various digital collections will also be offered in this presentation. Guidelines will be offered on how to identify collections that need to be retrofitted and how to efficiently go about enhancing and revising metadata for older digital objects. Using examples, guidance will also be provided on how to effectively establish best practices, and create indexing guidelines and detailed procedures to effectively maintain existing collections and create new ones.