DRAFT
Digital Collections Metadata Application Profile
Recommendations sent to MCG Spring 2012 - awaiting approval or notification of edits needed
Introduction
The members of the Metadata Operations Team (MOT) were charged to review and document the current metadata conventions for digital libraries, and to develop a set of recommended standards and guidelines to govern future metadata creation for the MIT Libraries digital collections.
In response to this charge MOT created this application profile to establish sound metadata policies for content destined for the MIT Libraries digital collections.
Benefits of consistent standards based metadata practices:
- Improved browse and search functionality
- Shared vocabulary, definitions and metadata usage across all digital collections
- Ability to support the inclusion of community specific metadata
- Improved interoperability and quality control among the various collections
- Ability to inform UI design
While this document was drafted with Dome (the repository for the MIT Libraries digital collections) in mind, it can be easily re-purposed for work with DSpace@MIT or any other search and delivery system the MIT Libraries may choose to employ in the future.
Purpose
The purpose of this document is to help support the common metadata needs of the MIT Libraries. This document is intended to guide the creation of metadata by collection managers and metadata creators contributing to the MIT Libraries digital collections. The digital collections of the MIT Libraries originate from different Library units, each with unique metadata practices, adhering to different metadata standards and schema. Following the requirements and recommendations documented below will facilitate standardization and consistency among the metadata used to describe the various Dome collections.