[Web4lib] Metadata tools that scale

[Winona Salesky]

Hi Will,
I just started up a digitization center here at my institution (the
University of Vermont) and have been struggling with the same issues. As far
as I know there is nothing out there currently that meets all your
specifications. I think some metadata creation tools are tied to the Digital
Asset Management System you use (for example contentDM provides some online
forms for entering Dublin Core, and I believe Fedora has some online data
entry tools as well and also creates the structural metadata) so it may
depend on the DAMS you choose as well.

For our system I wanted the a very flexible system because I knew we were
going to be using METS, DC or MODS, EAD, TEI, and possibly other metadata
formats later on. Because of our staff limitations we couldn't really
implement and customize a solution like Fedora so I ended up choosing a
native XML database for our DAMS (eXist) and have built the metadata
management side using XForms, which are web based and can be submitted
directly to the XML database. I imagine an XForms solution could be
integrated with several of the other library DAMS available. 

Here are some resources on Xforms:
WC3 intro to xforms
(http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Forms/2003/xforms-for-html-authors)
Orbeon (an open source solution to Xforms) (http://www.orbeon.com/)
Wikibooks Xforms (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/XForms)

I'd be happy to talk to you more if you have any other questions. You can
also check out what I have been doing with XForms on my blog
(http://thedil.wordpress.com/).
Good luck!
-Winona
----------------------------------
Digital Initiatives Librarian
The University of Vermont
winona.salesky at uvm.edu



-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Will Sexton
Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 2:59 PM
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: [Web4lib] Metadata tools that scale

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

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