Repurposing MARC metadata: using digital project experience to develop a metadata management design
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07378830410524585 |
| Published date | 01 June 2004 |
| Date | 01 June 2004 |
| Pages | 153-165 |
| Author | Martin Kurth,David Ruddy,Nathan Rupp |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Repurposing MARC
metadata: using digital
project experience to
develop a metadata
management design
Martin Kurth
David Ruddy and
Nathan Rupp
Technical services staff in libraries have a long
history of optimizing and documenting the
processes they use to create and manage the
metadata contained in MARC-based library
management systems. With the expansion of
library metadata processing into non-MARC
schemes, metadata managers and practitioners are
faced with the need to extend the tradition of
careful MARC metadata management to all
library metadata processes in an environment that
is complicated by decentralization.
The decentralized situation in which libraries
find themselves parallels that in all automated
work environments following the emergence of
relational databases, desktop workstations, and
client-server architectures. These tools made it
possible for internal data users to extract data from
centralized organizational databases and create
new, unique, standalone database applications on
their desktops (Tannenbaum, 2002). In libraries
that are building digital collections, information
technology and metadata staff access the relational
database files underlying library management
systems to extract and manipulate MARC
metadata sets to provide access to digital content
via non-MARC schemes. The metadata
processing environment in libraries that use
MARC and non-MARC metadata schemes
magnifies the decentralization and complexity
common to automated workplaces.
In such libraries, metadata processing involves
defining the relationships between metadata
schemes (mapping), moving metadata between
schemes (transformation), and coordinating the
intellectual activity and physical resources
required to create and manipulate metadata
(metadata management). Mapping and
transformation work is divided among metadata
staff and information technology staff. The tools
and electronic files used in metadata processing
are often scattered throughout the library, on
servers and on the workstations of individual staff
members. Actively managing the non-MARC
metadata resources used to build digital
collections is something most of these libraries
have only begun to do. Although the history of
using non-MARC metadata for digital collections
is a relatively short one, library metadata staff and
information technology staff have already begun to
notice the problems that result from the lack of
metadata management. Access to digital
collections inevitably suffers when staff try to
recall metadata content decisions, recreate
metadata repurposing workflows, or troubleshoot
connection failures by locating metadata resource
The authors
Martin Kurth is Head of Metadata Services, David Ruddy is
Head of Systems Development and Production, Electronic
Publishing,and Nathan Rupp is Metadata Librarian,all at Cornell
University Library, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA.
Keywords
Online cataloguing, Libraries, Design, United States of America
Abstract
Metadata and information technology staff in libraries that are
building digital collections typically extract and manipulate
MARC metadata sets to provide access to digital content via
non-MARC schemes. Metadata processing in these libraries
involves defining the relationships between metadata schemes,
moving metadata between schemes, and coordinating the
intellectual activity and physical resources required to create
and manipulate metadata. Actively managing the non-MARC
metadata resources used to build digital collections is some-
thing most of these libraries have only begun to do. This article
proposes strategies for managing MARC metadata
repurposing efforts as the first step in a coordinated approach to
library metadata management. Guided by lessons learned from
Cornell University library mapping and transformation activities,
the authors apply the literature of data resource management to
library metadata management and propose a model for
managing MARC metadata repurposing processes through the
implementation of a metadata management design.
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 16 September 2003
Revised 1 November 2003
Accepted 7 November 2003
153
Library Hi Tech
Volume 22 .Number 2 .2004 .pp. 153-165
#Emerald Group Publishing Limited .ISSN 0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/07378830410524585
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