Medium or message? A new look at standards, structures, and schemata for managing electronic resources
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07378830410524576 |
| Date | 01 June 2004 |
| Published date | 01 June 2004 |
| Pages | 144-152 |
| Author | Sharon E. Farb,Angela Riggio |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Medium or message?
A new look at standards,
structures, and
schemata for managing
electronic resources
Sharon E. Farb and
Angela Riggio
I do not accept the argument that a word is a word
is a word is a word no matter where it appears.
There is no pure ``word'' that does not inhabit
context inextricably. I don't think the medium is
absolutely the message, but I do think that the
medium conditions the message considerably
(Birkerts, 1995).
Increasingly, we are learning about new metadata
schemata, structures, and standards designed to
address various communities and constituencies.
To date, however, none exist that address the
dynamic, multidimensional, and legal aspects of
acquiring and managing licensed electronic
resources (e-resources) over time. The first section
of this paper provides an overview of some of the
unique characteristics, functionality, and
challenges of managing e-resources. The next
section describes the type of functionality and
metadata required to support a comprehensive
e-resource management system. The pros and
cons of several metadata schemas are then
highlighted to emphasize the functional
requirements to support a comprehensive
e-resource management system. The penultimate
section examines some of the policy issues related
to managing e-resources persistently over time; for
example, the impact of proprietary software,
restrictive licensing agreements, and digital rights
management on the requirements for metadata to
support long-term access and use of e-resources.
The paper concludes with an outline of a proposed
new schema to support the design and
implementation of systems and tools to manage
e-resources effectively over the long term.
The long-term challenges of e-resource
management
Why are e-resources so difficult to manage? What
functionality and metadata are required to support
e-resource management over time? This section
outlines ten key challenges facing effective
persistent e-resource management. The list of
challenges is not meant to be exhaustive, but
representative of the ever-changing,
multidimensional nature of the electronic
medium. The first group of challenges comprises
some of the unique characteristics of e-resources
and digital collections:
.the instability of content;
.license-legal issues;
.multiple business models present in current
e-publishing markets;
The authors
Sharon E. Farb is Coordinator for Digital Acquisitions and
Angela Riggio is Serials and Digital Resources Cataloger, both
at the University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Keywords
Resources, Internet, Online cataloguing, Licensing,
Information management, Libraries
Abstract
This article examines several library metadata standards,
structures and schema relevant to the challenge of managing
electronic resources. Among the standards, structures and
schema to be discussed are MARC, METS, Dublin Core, EAD,
XrML, and ODRL. The authors' analysis reveals that there is
currently no one standard, structure or schema that adequately
addresses the complexity of e-resource management. The article
concludes with an outline and proposal for a new metadata
schema designed to manage electronic resources.
Electronic access
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available
at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
Received September 2003
Revised November 2003
Accepted November 2003
144
Library Hi Tech
Volume 22 .Number 2 .2004 .pp. 144-152
#Emerald Group Publishing Limited .ISSN 0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/07378830410524576
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