[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 -- Will Sexton Metadata Analyst / Programmer Duke University Libraries