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I believe that the Rochester XC project involves a component focused on building such a tool, you may want to inquire/coordinate with them. Will Sexton wrote: > In January of 2007 I sent a post to the Web4lib list titled "Metadata > tools that scale." At Duke we were seeking opinions about a software > platform to capture metadata for digital collections and finding > databases. The responses to that inquiry suggested that what we were > seeking didn't exist. > > About a year ago, an OCLC report on a survey of 18 member institutions, > "RLG Programs Descriptive Metadata Practices Survey Results," supported > that basic conclusion. When asked about the tools that they used to > "create, edit and store metadata descrptions" of digital and physical > resources, a sizable majority responded "customized" or "homegrown" tool. > > Since my initial inquiry, we launched a new installation of our digital > collections at http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/. Yet we still > lack a full-featured software platform for capturing descriptive metadata. > > We did our own informal survey of peer institutions building digital > collections, which further reinforced that familiar conclusion -- there > are lots of Excel spreadsheets, Access and FileMaker databases, etc., out > there, but no available enterprise-level solution (and we're still happy > to be wrong on this point). > > We also articulated a detailed series of specifications for a metadata > tool. The library has committed to hiring two programmers each to a > two-year appointment for producing a tool that meets these specs. I just > posted on this list the job description, for which there are two openings. > > I have a longer version of this post on our digital collections blog > (http://library.duke.edu/blogs/digital-collections/2008/10/10/a-metadata-tool-that-scales/), > listing our specifications in more detail. But here are some of the > basics: > > * Digitization: integrates with, or provides a module for, management of > digitization workflow. > > * Description: supports a collections-based data model; flexible metadata > schema (for us, the "Duke Core", derived from qualified Dublin Core); > authority lists; cardinality and required-field constraints; metametadata > (i.e., flagging, notations and status indicators for individual items); > access control; simple and intuitive use. > > * Publication: exports METS documents as well as other common formats > (CSV, etc.). > > * Asset Management: must be compatible with an asset management policy. > > While the Duke specifications are particular to our internal needs, I > think we captured a lot of what makes the need for a full-featured > metadata tool felt around the field. I have some ideas about how to go > about implementing this set of specifications, but thought I'd see if the > concept might spur discussion on CODE4LIB. How would you approach this > project? Any thoughts on architecture, platform, data models, > methodologies? > > Will > -- > Will Sexton > Metadata Analyst / Programmer > Duke University Libraries > -- Jonathan Rochkind Digital Services Software Engineer The Sheridan Libraries Johns Hopkins University 410.516.8886 rochkind (at) jhu.edu --- Jonathan Rochkind Digital Services Software Engineer The Sheridan Libraries Johns Hopkins University 410.516.8886 [log in to unmask]