Reading #9

Foulonneau, M., &  Riley, J. (2008). The future of metadata.  In Metadata for Digital Resources: Implementation, Systems Design and Interoperability ( pp. 187-197).  Oxford: Chandos Publishing.

Metadata began as a simple set of functions, primarily for cataloging.  Increasingly, the flexibility and extensibility of metadata are gaining value.  A new challenge facing the cultural heritage sector is the development of new ways of gathering large amounts of data (conceptually), relating it to the relevant resources, and using and reusing the metadata across a wide spectrum of applications.  The authors address four trends that are influencing and will continue to influence metadata work in the years to come.  Automated metadata generation is predicted to continue its place in digital workflows.  Some types of metadata are better suited to automated generation and others, like descriptive metadata, can pose a problem.  DC Dot is a tool that can be used to automatically generate metadata from web pages.  The tool can suggest keywords after an analysis of the text.  Tools like these are still in development and manual generation is usually also needed.  The second trend is the influence of Web 2.0.  The authors predict that user participation, such as recommendations/reviews, tagging and content sharing will have great potential for enriching digital library applications.  The third trend concerns strategies for metadata management.  The authors suggest broad and accommodating, yet clearly defined usage conditions for metadata records in order to provide the best possible flexibility for future use.  Lastly, the authors suggest that as metadata changes, so must the institution’s mission statement.  Particularly, the mission statement should address the issue of cooperation between institutions.  The institution’s ability to position itself directly inside the circle in which its users and colleagues exist is directly related to its ability to fulfill its primary mission.