Metadata Guidelines for the Mountain West Digital Library: Who, What, Where, When, Why?

1. Metadata Guidelines for the Mountain West Digital Library:Who, What, Where, When, Why? CONTENTdm Users Group Meeting July 23, 2007 Portland, Oregon Vicki Toy Smith University of Nevada, Reno

2. Metadata Guidelines • Project completion: 2006 • Guidelines were developed by the Utah Academic Library Consortium Task Force (UALC’s Cataloging & Digitization Committees) • Goal: Improving metadata in the Mountain West Digital Library • UALC member institutions had loosely followed the CDP (Collaborative Digitization Project) Dublin Core Metadata Best Practices guidelines

3. A need for best practices • Implementation of the guidelines across various UALC institutions was inconsistent • CDP best practices guidelines lacked good working examples for users to implement metadata guidelines • In the initial meeting between the Cataloging and Digitization Committees, general problems with the Mountain West Digital Library’s (MWDL’s) metadata were discussed • Task force examined differences between metadata & traditional cataloging

4. Dublin Core Metadata • A universal metadata schema • No consistency across projects using Dublin Core • Documentation is not well-defined • Intended for use by non-catalogers & specialists • No MARC tags used with Dublin Core metadata • Most libraries in our consortia use CDP Metadata Best Practices guidelines for CONTENTdm projects • CDP Guidelines Version 2.1.1 (September 2006): www.cdpheritage.org/cdp/documents/CDPDCMBP.pdfLinked from:www.cdpheritage.org/cdp/workingGroups/metadata/index.cfm/

5. Mountain West Digital Library (MWDL) • The Mountain West Digital Library is a consortium of digital collections from universities, public libraries, museums in Utah, Nevada, and Idaho • Some institutions have collections on the Mountain West Digital Library (MWDL) website. • Other institutions host their own collections:University of Utah, BYU, Utah State University, Southern Utah University, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, & University of Nevada, Reno, Weber State University, & Utah State Archives • These digital libraries are aggregated in a single, searchable index hosted at the University of Utah: www.mwdl.org/ • In addition, some UALC partner institutions have collections featured on the MWDL website • Partner institutions include: Murray City Library, Topaz Museum, Uintah County Library, Utah State Historical Society

6. Issues confronting the Task Force • Differences between metadata and traditional cataloging were examined • Constructing metadata is different than building a catalog • However, structured discipline used in cataloging could improve the consistency of the MWDL metadata

7. Task Force Members • Molly Beisler – University of Nevada, Reno • Randy Christensen – Southern Utah University • John Herbert – University of Utah • Kathy Rankin – University of Nevada, Las Vegas • Vicki Toy Smith – University of Nevada, Reno • Mary Taylor – University of Nevada, Reno • Cheryl Walters – Utah State University • Kayla Willey (contributed early) – BYU • Kathryn Etcheverria – (contributed later) University of Nevada, Reno

8. Mission of the Task Force • GOAL: Development of metadata examples for digital library item types • CDP Dublin Core Metadata Best Practices guidelines used • However, examples were tailored for the MWDL and CONTENTdm digital asset management software

9. Examples developed by task force members • Postcard • Journal article • Diary • Dissertation • Compound object (Book, Individual Page, Newspaper Issue, Newspaper Page, Newspaper article) • Audio • Film/Video • Photograph • Ephemera (Show program) • Artwork • Map • Architectural/Technical Drawings • Letter

10. Metadata Guidelines • Following our discussions, we decided to write a document that contained the 14 types of metadata examples • These examples explained how to structure the metadata (which was developed for a specific item type) • Resulting set of examples, plus other considerations and recommendations are presented on the MWDL web site • The last link on the “about” page of the MWDL web site contains the guidelines completed in 2006: www.lib.utah.edu/digital/collections/mwdl/about.html/ • Direct link to the file: www.lib.utah.edu/digital/collections/mwdl/metadata_MWDL2006.pdf Finalized Metadata Examples

11. Further Development • With knowledge and experience with metadata and aggregations the document will undergo revisions. • However, the present document should assist in the development of today’s digital libraries.

12. Thank you! Vicki Toy Smith, Principal Cataloger University of Nevada, Reno vicki@unr.edu www2.library.unr.edu/vicki/