[cross-posted to web4lib and code4lib lists]

We’re embarking on a project to adopt or build a metadata tool at Duke 
University Libraries. Before we’re immersed in architectures, designs, 
workflows, schedules, layers, platforms, capacities, etc., I’d like to 
indulge in some guilt-free big thinking. I thought I’d just kind of put 
the question out there: What are some of the big ideas that could inform 
the development of a metadata tool?

I invite conversation here and on our Digital Collections Blog 
(http://library.duke.edu/blogs/digital-collections/), where I've posted 
an extended version of this message. Other conversations will occur in 
various venues over the next month or so. I’ll try to pull together and 
post on anything I see, hear, read or say. In the meantime, I’ll share 
one big idea that I’ve been considering; I’m not saying it’s THE big 
idea or even implying that we’ll follow through on it at Duke. It’s just 
one way to bend our thinking about this project.

The idea follows from a blog post that Lorcan Dempsey wrote in May, 
mentioning an example of a “shared cataloging environment” 
(http://orweblog.oclc.org/archives/001641.html). When I read it, I 
wondered, what if you take that idea to its logical (illogical?) 
extreme: a metadata tool as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform.

I've elaborated on the idea in the blog post 
(http://library.duke.edu/blogs/digital-collections/2008/11/24/grand-metadata-tool-ideas/). 
I welcome any feedback on this idea, including, “You could never make it 
work!” (why?). I’m interested in any other “big thoughts” that people 
may have related to possibilities for a metadata tool platform.

Will
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Will Sexton
Metadata Analyst / Programmer
Duke University Libraries