Is Quality Metadata Shareable Metadata? The Implications of Local Metadata Practices for Federated Collections

摘要

This study of metadata quality was conducted by the IMLS Digital Collections and Content (DCC) project team (http://imlsdcc.grainger.uiuc.edu/) using quantitative and qualitative analysis of metadata authoring practices of several projects funded through the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership Grant (NLG) program. We presenta number of statistical characterizations of metadata samples drawn from a large corpus harvested through the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) Protocol for MetadataHarvesting (PMH) and interpret these findings in relation to general quality dimensions and metadata practices that occur at the local level. We discuss the impact of these kinds of quality on aggregation and suggest qualitycontrol and normalization processes that may improve search and discovery services at the aggregated level.