International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications 2004
| Published date | 01 January 2005 |
| Date | 01 January 2005 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07419050510588197 |
| Pages | 8-9 |
| Author | Mary Wu |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
International Conference on Dublin Core and
Metadata Applications 2004
Mary Wu
8LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 1 2005, pp. 8-9, #Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/07419050510588197
Introduction
The International Conference on
Dublin Core and Metadata Applications
took place on October 11-14, 2004 in
Shanghai, China. It was the fourth in a
series of expanded Dublin Core
conferences that included a conference,
tutorials and workshops. Prior to the
first in this series of conferences held in
Tokyo in 2001, eight Dublin Core
workshop series had been held in
various North American and European
locations starting in 1995. These
workshops and conferences have
provided a forum where researchers and
practitioners can exchange new ideas
and demonstrate the development of
metadata standards and applications
from practical aspects.
The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
(DCMI), an open and international
association, has been the driving force
in the community of people who devote
themselves to making information
resources easier to find. Following the
development and the adoption of the
Dublin Core Metadata Element Set,
other metadata standards and initiatives
have emerged. Having recognized the
growth of activities in the Chinese
metadata community as well as the
growing contributions and importance
of metadata developments in the
country, the DCMI chose China as its
host for the 2004 conference. The
Chinese people were delighted to have
the opportunity to showcase their
experiences and achievements.
Meanwhile, they also took the occasion
to draw international attention to the
Chinese endeavor in developing
metadata for organizing and
discovering its abundant cultural and
historical resources, which otherwise
would remain hidden from the rest of
the world.
Conference organization and
location
The conference was hosted by the
Shanghai Library and sponsored by the
Library of Chinese Academy of
Sciences, the National Science and
Technology Library of China, and the
DCMI. The conference organization
consisted of eight committees. Among
them, the Conference Organizing
Committee was chaired by the Director
of Shanghai Library Jianzhong Wu, and
the Program Committee was co-chaired
by Wei Liu (Shanghai Library) and
Thomas Baker (Germany). Other
committees included the Workshop
Committee chaired by Makx Dekkers
from DCMI and the Tutorial
Committee chaired by Diane Hillmam
from Cornell University. The
coordinators of the conference were
Wei Liu and Makx Dekkers.
Shanghai, the host city of the
conference, lies in central-eastern
China with a total area of 2,448 square
miles and a population of more than 13
million. A coastal city exposed to the
East China Sea, Shanghai is one of the
most booming urban areas in the world.
It is an important center of finance,
economy, trade and a seaport for both
China and Asia-Pacific regions. The
city, started as a fishing village in the
eleventh century, rapidly grew into an
industrial and financial metropolis
when the British along with the
Americans and French came into
Shanghai as a result of foreign trade
after the Opium Wars in the nineteenth
century. In 1949, the Communist
Chinese government took over the
control of Shanghai as well as the
businesses left behind by the foreigners.
After the cultural and economic turmoil
generated by the Cultural Revolution
from 1966 to 1976, the open door policy
of the Chinese Government made
Shanghai once again a prosperous
economic zone attracting more and
more investors and entrepreneurs from
all over the world.
Shanghai Library, the venue of the
conference, was first founded in 1952.
The original library, an elegant and
beautiful European-style building, was
too old and too small to house a fast
growing institution. In 1996, the new
library, built in the center of Shanghai,
was opened. With a total floor space of
83,000 square meters, the two tower
buildings of 11 and 24 stories hold 48.5
million volumes in both Chinese and
Western languages. A library with an
auditorium of 842 seats and plenty of
small rooms for group discussion
proved to be a suitable conference
place. Being the symbolic cultural
center of the city, the library, equipped
with modern multimedia technology,
provided all the required support for
speeches and presentations. Shanghai
Library's digital project, which
digitizes and stores the country's largest
gramophone record collection of
Chinese local operas and dramas as
well as other documents of historical
significance, pertains to the theme of
the conference ± metadata across
languages and cultures.
Convention schedules and special
events
The conference was convened by the
Managing Director of DCMI Makx
Dekker and followed by one of the
keynote speakers Xiaolin Zhang, the
Director of Library of Chinese
Academy of Sciences. Mr Dekker
highlighted the mission, scope and
organizational structure of DCMI while
Mr Zhang described the background
and development of the Chinese Digital
Library Standards project. During the
conference, 166 participants from 25
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