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This study aims to explore how metadata have been applied in GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums) institutions in New Zealand (NZ) and to analyse its overall quality with the interoperability of the metadata element set especially in mind.

The first stage of data collection involved an analysis of the metadata records from 16 institutions from the NZ GLAM sector to examine the types and extent of metadata used. However, by looking at publicly accessible metadata records, it was impossible to determine the full extent of metadata created, especially when there could be metadata that were kept in‐house. This was complemented with interviewing of staff from the institutions concerned.

The study found that metadata records for digital images in four types of institutions have different emphases on metadata functions and a variety of metadata are not applied on a consistent basis. The lack of technical data in metadata records means that digital visual images are not always well protected. There is a consensus among those interviewed that metadata sharing is important. However, the wide use of a proprietary system which comes with pre‐existing metadata fields could result in a lack of flexibility and a risk that institutions adopt cataloguing practices to accommodating their collection management systems rather than to the requirements for interoperability and long‐term preservation.

In addition to studying metadata quality in GLAM digital image repositories, the study also examined the rationale and factors affecting the current practice via interviews with representatives from the institutions concerned. This shed light on potential barriers to interoperability that warranted further examination.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the availability of embedded metadata within images of digital cultural collections. It is designed to examine a proposed hypothesis that most digitally derived images of cultural resources are stripped of their metadata once they are placed on the web.

A sample of 603 images were selected randomly from four cultural portals which aggregate digitized cultural collections, then four steps in the data collection process took place to examine image metadata via the web-based tool and windows application.

The study revealed that 28.5 percent of the analyzed images contained metadata, no links exist between image embedded metadata and its metadata record or the pages of the websites analyzed, and there is a significant usage of Extensible Metadata Platform to encode embedded metadata within the images.

The findings of the study may encourage heritage digital collection providers to reconsider their metadata preservation practices and policies to enrich the content of embedded metadata. In addition, it will raise awareness about the potential and value of embedded metadata in enhancing the findability and exchange of digital collections.

This study is ground breaking in that it is one of the early studies, especially in the Arab world, which aim to recognize the use of image embedded metadata within cultural heritage digital collections on the web.

The Ewell Sale Stewart Library of the Academy of Natural Sciences has just completed a major digital imaging project. This article describes the project, options that were considered for Web delivery of images and text, and reasons for choosing Innovative Interfaces, Inc.’s image management function. The article includes a description of the data entry process as well as a review of the Millennium Media management product, which will be available through Innovative later this year. Evolving image metadata standards are also discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed description of the Illinois Digitization Institute's Basics and Beyond digitization training program and to describe how successful the project's different training approaches have been.

The training consists of one‐day workshops, web‐based courses, and web‐based courses plus a hands‐on workshop element. Courses are given at different price points and for different lengths of time. Surveys and quizzes measure how well the participants learn the material.

As surveys, quiz results, and other data from the courses show, the objective of the project is being accomplished: to present cultural heritage institutions with different types of digitization training to suit their time constraints, budgets, and education needs and produce a new set of professionals who will create successful and long‐lasting digitization projects.

The success of the project shows that participants respond well to different training approaches and these different approaches can be implemented to provide cultural heritage institutions with a wide range of digitization learning options suited to their needs. Such methods can also be used for other types of library and non‐library training.

This is the first time asynchronous but instructor‐led web‐based courses have been used for digitization training, and findings indicate that it has been successful. The outcomes of this training can be useful for institutions interested in how well participants respond to this unique style of training.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the implications of current theories that advocate for minimal levels of description in digital collections. Specifically, this paper looks at the archival theory of “More Product, Less Process” and its encouragement of collection-level description. The purpose of the study was to analyze how levels of description impact resource retrieval.

This study analyzed 35 images from a New York Public Library (NYPL) digital collection present on the NYPL website and on Flickr. The methodology was designed to reflect users’ information seeking behavior for image collections. There were two research questions guiding this study: what are the descriptive terms used to describe items in digital collections? and what is the success rate of retrieving resources using assigned descriptive terms?

The results of this study revealed that the images from the NYPL collection were more difficult to find on the institution’s website as compared with Flickr. These findings suggest that lesser levels of description in digital collections hinder resource retrieval.

These findings suggest that lesser description levels hurt the findability of resources. In the wake of theories such as “More Product, Less Process”, information professionals must find ways to assign metadata to individual materials in digital image collections.

Recent research concerning description levels of digital collections is several years old and focuses mostly on the usefulness of collection-level metadata as a supplement to or substitute for item-level metadata. Few, if any, studies exist that explore the implications of description levels on resource retrievability and findability. This study is also unique in that it discusses these implications in the context of less-is-more theories of archival processing.

User‐created metadata, often referred to as folksonomy or social classification, has received a considerable amount of attention in the digital library world. Social tagging is perceived as a tool for enhancing description of digital objects and providing a venue for user input and greater user engagement. This article seeks to examine the pros and cons of user‐generated metadata in the context of digital image collections and compares it to professionally created metadata schema and controlled vocabulary tools.

The article provides an overview of challenges to concept‐based image indexing. It analyzes the characteristics of social classification and compares images described by users to a set of images indexed in a digital collection.

The article finds that user‐generated metadata vary in the level of description, accuracy, and consistency and do not provide a solution to the challenges of image indexing. On the other hand, they reflects user's language and can lead toward user‐centered indexing and greater user engagement.

Social tagging can be implemented as a supplement to professionally created metadata records to provide an opportunity for users to comment on images.

The article introduces the idea of user‐centered image indexing in digital collections.

Aims to present the authors' efforts towards the development of a digital library environment supporting research at the Medical School of Athens University, Greece.

The digital library facilitates access to medical material produced by laboratories for both research and educational purposes. As the material produced varies (regarding its type and structure) and the search requirements imposed by potential users differ, each laboratory develops its own collection. All collections must be bilingual, supporting both Greek and English. Extended requirements were imposed regarding the services offered by the digital library environment, due to the following reasons: end‐users actively participate in the cataloguing workflow; cataloguers should be able to create and manage multiple collections in a simplified manner; and different search requirements must be supported for different user groups. To formulate and then deal with these requirements, the authors introduced the term “dynamic collection management” denoting automated collection definition and unified collection management within an integrated digital library environment. Digital library components providing the desired functionality and the interaction between them are described. System performance, especially during collection search, and bilingual support are also explored.

Finds that Athens Medical School Digital Library facilitates access to medical material to researchers and students for both research and educational purposes.

The paper provides useful information on a digital library environment which supports research.

The purpose of this study is to report the results of a project incorporating metadata analysis for the creation of curated guides to a digital library of historic photographic images.

The general format and scope of the curated guides was determined by members of the project team. Automated processing was developed to analyze subject terms in metadata of digital images submitted to the digital library collection. The results of the metadata processing were used to narrow the themes of the curated guides, and to help create canned searches that would expose representative collection content. The curated guides were created and made available to users of the digital image collection.

Processing and analyzing metadata can be a useful tool in the creation of digital library collection guides. However, the usefulness of this method is highly dependent upon consistency and accuracy of the source metadata records.

Creators of digital library collections are shown a method of using existing resources to create collection guides. The value of metadata demonstrated by this application may affect considerations of the cost of metadata creation.

This activity discussed in this paper addresses an established need among digital library practitioners – the need to provide users with guided access to the content of their collections. The method discussed for creating curated guides is repeatable, and could be improved in further applications.

The purpose of this paper is to address the challenges that special collections repositories face when creating digital surrogates driven by researcher demand, to link these digitization issues with archival practice, and to provide recommendations for improvement.

Presents an overview of the development of the University of Maryland Libraries' digital imaging workflows and a critique of current practices.

A viable digital repository can be built from surrogates created in response to researcher demand, but there are limitations to this approach, with opportunity for improvement.

As a case study, this paper is limited to one institution's perspective.

Provides insight into constructing and managing digitization programs at special collections repositories.

This paper offers a case study approach for an institutional digital repository influenced heavily by researcher demand, in contrast to a digital repository constructed with a more structured plan.