International Yearbook of Library and Information Management 2003‐2004: Metadata Applications and Management

Citation

Gourkova, H. (2005), "International Yearbook of Library and Information Management 2003‐2004: Metadata Applications and Management", Library Management, Vol. 26 No. 6/7, pp. 413-415. https://doi.org/10.1108/01435120410609815

The International Yearbook of Library and Information Management is an annual publication in the field of librarianship and library management. As a thematic resource it contains topics covering current issues, case studies of best practice, trends and future developments contributed by the internationally recognized experts in library science.

The theme “Metadata applications and management” was chosen for the volume of 2003‐2004. So, what is metadata, the term that crept into the standard vocabulary of the library science and turned into the obsession of the modern library world? Metadata has been with us since the first librarian made a handwritten list of the items in the shelf. Originally from the Greek language the term “meta” has a meaning of “alongside, with, next”. Thus, metadata can be thought of as a data describing other data. It is the internet age that came along with the broader definition of metadata and it most commonly refers to descriptive information about online resources.

The readers of this comprehensive resource are introduced to an extensive overview of significant issues with regard to metadata from its basics to metadata applications in general and in a range of selected disciplines. The 15 chapters written in clear and comprehensible language are divided into six parts offering the key issues to metadata developments, applications and management.

Part 1 “Perspectives of metadata” introduces the basics of metadata in a clear and simple way, providing real‐life examples of metadata in use, and discusses the complexity of metadata and importance of an appropriate structure of metadata.

Other chapters take the reader through the metadata applications in selected fields of humanities, government, education, metadata and bibliographic organization, and specific metadata applications. The editor admits that the lack of articles on metadata applications in the sciences is the result of a very few materials on the subject.

Two chapters bringing forward the background of music and art metadata represent Metadata in humanities. Sherry Velucci, a recognized expert in the field of music librarianship, outlines in her paper different types of music information as well as conceptual and practical issues and problems, based on real‐life examples.

Of particular interest is a discussion on the current music metadata solutions (AACR2 and MARC) and new directions such as Dublin Core, encoded archival description (EAD) as well as detailed examples of major music metadata projects. In chapter 4 Dr Simon Pockley states an argument that access to structured metadata in the arts is a radical idea. He then discusses current issues on the metadata in arts based on the research into collaborative metadata production, conducted at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and equips the reader with a checklist for a healthy art metadata ecology. The article written in a very descriptive and elegant language which is a delight to touch itself, takes the reader to the conclusion that is it time to talk about “the art of metadata”, of how images and sounds can be also metadata, and “about new literacy of this emerging form of expression”.

Part 3 turns us to metadata in government, the major area for research and development of metadata initiatives. Chapter 5 focuses readers on government web sites and portals, discusses components of a comprehensive information architecture, including metadata controlled vocabularies, thesauri and taxonomies, portals, content management solutions as well as integration issues, providing real‐life examples of successful implementation.

Chapter 6 transfers us from the USA to the UK and is of special interest as it takes us through the details of the national case study in developing online catalogue services (National Archives Network) aimed at providing easy and comprehensive online access to users. This experience may be applicable in other countries.

Two excellent articles on education continue our journey to the exciting world of metadata management. Chapter 7 focuses on the metadata in relation to educational resources for teaching and learning, emphasizing metadata issues unique to education and training. This paper begins with the definitions of a set of core terms followed by discussions of the categories of education metadata necessary in resource discovery, and the use of those as teaching and learning tools. Unique attributes of educational resources and technical architecture for metadata generation and use are discussed in broad terms.

The following chapter brings forward the discussion of “Educational metadata in transition: an Australian case study”. It examines the development and application of metadata standards with the requirements of Australian education and training sector in view. Practical approach and technical issues of the development and utilization of metadata standards as well as initiatives such as Edna, AEShareNet, the Le@rning Federation, the Australian Flexible Learning Framework and COLIS are discussed.

Chapters 9‐11 tie together ideas and issues described in the discipline specific chapters discussed above and are of particular interest and benefit for any practicing cataloguer.

Chapter 9 explores the relationship between metadata and bibliographic control and argues that some problem issues between these two systems can be softened by diminishing the distinction between human‐understandable and machine‐understandable data and between information storage and information transfer.

In the following article Dr Ingrid Hsieh‐Yee raises issues of the day on the increased demand of expertise in the organizing information in regard with the growth of interest in metadata, as well as revised LIS education programmes. She, thus, proves that metadata education will never loose its importance and actuality.

Chapter 11 examines “Developments in cataloguing and metadata”, changes of metadata environment and its impact on libraries and online information providers. It is followed by a very substantial overview of research conducted by OCLC, which brought forward issues of simplification, collocation and growth in the shared networked space.

Four papers in the final part take readers through other applications of metadata from digital preservation strategies with the introduction to the open archival information system reference model through the history and nature of digital geospatial data to the update on activities within selected metadata initiatives (Dublin Core, VRA Core, ONIX, EAD), and metadata applications in China.

Every chapter in the volume is followed by an extensive bibliography for further references and the introduction contains an overview of every chapter with makes it easy to locate the information of particular interest. Index present.

This volume also contains the biographies of the authors demonstrating that the contribution to this book, which is the must for every modern academic library, is made by a team of international leaders in our professional field.