Metadata: A Cataloger's Primer

Citation

Brunt, R. (2006), "Metadata: A Cataloger's Primer", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 40 No. 4, pp. 395-397. https://doi.org/10.1108/00330330610707999

Metadata as a concept (in modern terms resource discovery data embedded in published information objects) has a long history: the title page; Ranganathan's pre‐natal cataloguing; Cataloguing in Source; Cataloguing in Publication. These examples may be extended to include even the enriched MARC record where, in a type of regression, the metadata has gobbled up part of the resource it represents. Most of these require professional human involvement – and failure to produce data of equivalent standards and reliability in e‐publications has been shown to be either ineffectual, inefficient or both (Pockley, 2003). Cataloguers might draw comfort from a belief that it has all been done before and that life would be simpler but for those aggressive computer types who are upsetting the boat with their reinventions and new nomenclatures. This compilation is at once a comfort and also a necessary and timely reminder that times have changed from the cosy days of the book and that there is much for the traditionalist to contribute, if only to save the IT community from the effects of some of their less than judicious departures.

The title might be considered a little misleading. What it is not is a primer in the old sense of the word, a “Ladybird” introduction to the Dublin Core, perhaps; rather it is a significant compilation of chapters by experts, drawn from both academe and practice, who provide the requisite information to facilitate navigation through, and assimilation of, the burgeoning world of metadata in all its shapes and forms and applications.

We have here a set of readable and rewarding papers which (abit like Hildreth's pioneering work in online catalogues (Hildreth, 1982)) comes at about the right moment when we may stand back and see the bigger picture and in so doing lose some of the apprehension felt when first coming up against the alien called Metadata.

The book is organised into two substantial sections: the first encompassing the intellectual foundations, the second practical considerations and applications. The book also contains an introductory essay by the editor (who also supplies one of the chapters in section one), and a competent index. Virtually all of the chapters are equipped with substantial lists of sources, which provide not only testimony to the growing maturity of the topic but also place its discussion in the context of conventional librarianship.

In the first section may be found six papers by established academic authorities on bibliographic control in its widest definition; while in the second may be found five contributions addressing the practicalities of creating, applying and using metadata from practitioners in library education and librarianship. Altogether, it provides a comprehensive package, which should prove both attractive and useful to a wide range of readers from those firmly in the library tradition to those with computing backgrounds. Its broad reach might even encourage those from without the cataloguing community to see that beneath the glamour of the web and its potential for non‐conventional (still) publishing must lie the enabling technologies of cataloguing to make the products of web broadcasting available to its purposive surfers.

Let's take a look inside, starting with the editor's introduction and the more cerebral offerings. Smiraglia provides a useful overview in his “Introducing metadata” which sets out the purpose of the volume and reminds us of the foundations to be seen in traditional cataloguing in both the implicit and explicit data structures present in conventional catalogue entries. The foresight of the framers of the International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD) in their punctuation scheme is patent; such factorising ensured that conversion to other communications formats, including the most modern such as XML, might be easily facilitated.

Part I: Intellectual foundations – starts off with a chapter by Jane Greenberg which provides a basic framework for the study of metadata schemes, reviewing the definition of metadata as a concept along with metadata functions and metadata typologies; and introducing a specific framework – Metadata Objectives and principles, Domains, and Architectural Layout (MODAL) – by which schemes might be studied.

Lynne Howarth provides a comprehensive historical evaluation of metadata and bibliographic control in an attempt to fill a vital gap in the literature. In it she draws comparisons with the development of international standardisation of cataloguing practices (resulting in and facilitating Universal Bibliographic Control) and the modern efforts at achieving similar interoperability among metadata systems.

Chapters by Grant Campbell (“Metadata, metaphor, and metonymy”); Leatrice Ferraioli (“An exploratory study of metadata creation in a health care agency”); Jennifer Cwiok (“The defining element – a discussion of the creator element within metadata schemas”); and the editor himself (“Content metadata – an analysis of Etruscan artefacts in a museum of archaeology”) report original research which demonstrate the potential for application of metadata in resource representation.

Five practice‐oriented chapters comprise Part II. They introduce metadata schemes and demonstrate their use and are intended to be instructional to those aspirants (perhaps both willing and pressed) confronted with a metadata programme to implement.

Anita Coleman describes the application of Dublin Core, giving general guidelines for the creation of metadata using the scheme. Included is a worksheet and some examples of descriptions based on it. Alexander Thurman introduces Encoded Archival Description (EAD) and Encoded Archival Context (EAC) metadata standards. While EAD has been with us for some time EAC is still at the development stage, though far enough along for the exciting LEADERS project in University College London to be described. Patrick Yott provides a brief history of markup languages (such as SGML) and shows how HTML and Extensible Markup Language (XML) can be effectively used in creating ‘well‐formed’ documents for publishing on the web. Linda Cantara describes Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS), a data and communication standard for encoding different types of metadata, such as descriptive, administrative and structural for digital documents. The planning and development of a metadata‐driven digital repository at the local level is discussed by Michael Chopey. His chapter comprehensively explores practical issues such as the management and publicising of the resource in addition to the more technical aspects of metadata creation.

There are a few reservations, however. Notwithstanding its comprehensiveness and accuracy the index shares a solecism, which should bring cataloguers up short – AACR has two “us” in its title: and if some contributors (and copy editors) missed it the indexer shouldn't have.

Are there really 999 tags in the MARC system? Even were the sub‐fields of the full manual included in the counting (the reviewer forebore the exercise) it is unlikely – the contributor perhaps meant that local processing fields might include 999. A comparison with the 16 fields in the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) scheme is not really helpful since some of those are repeatable and, in being repeated, the same element might be discharging (in cataloguing terms) quite different functions.

A major gap lies in the treatment of forms of data elements. While it is nearly addressed in the section on Online Information Exchange (ONIX), a scheme closely associated with library practice), it is not picked up in discussion (in the same paper) of other schemes such as EAD and the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI). Despite the great stress on interoperability the whole is subverted if prescriptions don't go all the way. It may be possible to arrange for “creator” fields to talk to each other but if some use “Jane Doe” and others use “Doe, Jane” the conversation might end up garbled. Given the nature of the publication, authority control is, in some respects quite rightly, barely covered; but concern for proper forms, or the rules for their identification, is surely the hallmark of accuracy in resource discovery. Unfortunately, this does not chime with self‐service creator‐produced metadata.

Despite these minor niggles this is a book to be welcomed wholeheartedly. There is a great deal between the covers and it will prove of considerable interest and value to all its intended audiences. With luck it will bring to those “techies” who are unaware of (or loath to acknowledge) the contribution of librarianship to information management, some insight into an aspect all too often regarded as the Cinderella of the web.