Metadata and Future of Libraries

This report attempts to provide a snapshot of digital library metadata at a stage when such standardization has become fully practical, even if its possibilities have not yet been fully realized within the higher education sector. The bulk of the report does this by surveying a group of standards which are based on the XML (eXtensible Markup Language) markup language, and showing how they relate to each other in ways which allow them to form an integrated metadata scheme. It will be seen that their application in a scheme of this type is not entirely without its problems, most of which are caused by overlaps and redundancies between the standards, but practical solutions will be outlined for these. An assessment of future developments in library metadata will point to possibilities for consolidating the potential offered by these developments and indicate how they are likely to affect all stakeholders in digital libraries.

Gartner, R. (2008). Metadata for digital libraries: State of the art and future directions. Bristol, U.K.: JISC – Technology and Standards Watch. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.183.3762&rep=rep1&type=pdf