[Untitled]: How to lose your metadata and keep your search results

Abstract

It is an interesting time in the libraries for metadata. We have a lot of things described and described well, but is it feasible to keep all of that description in a useful way moving forward? And how do we offer up a ton of items all at once for online access?

Whether it’s cataloging records or other descriptive metadata, we seem to now be in transition in the libraries. New systems require that we move metadata into new formats. New massive digital collections require description at a scale previously not encountered. We know the metadata we’re going to have after these moves and massive description efforts take place will not be complete or perfect and will probably not be the exact metadata we had before. We have to strategize about what information is going to be the most important for search and discovery and aim to have that information available as accurately as possible, regardless of the transition or the scale.

Join us for a look at the systems and approaches we are taking to manage these messy metadata scenarios. We’ll discuss the Libraries’ move from Fedora 3 to Fedora 4 and the metadata transition happening there, the Media Digitization and Preservation Initiative’s influx of items requiring mass description and the ramifications and methods being employed, and the future of cataloging records as all libraries look to transition to systems using BIBFRAME. The strategies we employ this time around will inform future metadata moves and mass description efforts.