[Web4lib] Metadata tools that scale

[Will Sexton]

I'm participating in a group that's looking at the digitization program 
here at Duke U. Libraries.  The topic brings with it a wide range of 
questions, but one that we return to often relates to the lack of a 
suitable metadata tool.  In the past, our approach to creating metadata 
has mostly involved one-off development in platforms like FileMaker and 
Office (Access, Excel).  Experience has made me extremely averse to this 
approach, and in my judgment, to have a digitization program that scales 
at all, we need much better support for metadata creation.  A suitable 
platform would have the following features:

* authority control
* adaptability to diverse metadata schemas
* can be integrated with:
  - Digital Asset Management, for storing both metadata and files 
resulting from digitization
  - some sort of Content Management (i.e., for Web publication and other 
modes of dissemination)
  - a tool for managing and tracking the digitization process, itself a 
highly theoretical entity
* is web-based for distributed access
* provides for workflow management

We ask ourselves, for these requirements, should we build or buy?  But 
is there even anything to buy?  How do others involved in supporting 
digitization (and metadata creation, generally) deal with this issue?  
Finally, does anyone have any wisdom to share which would contravene the 
features list or other assumptions stated above?

My sense of this question is that the options for "buy" (or "borrow", or 
"steal", though "beg" may have some potential) are very limited.  But 
it's one point on which I'd be very happy to be proved wrong.

Best,

Will

-- 
Will Sexton
Metadata Analyst / Programmer
Duke University Libraries