[Description] | [Project Details and Contacts] | [Documents]  

The creation and maintenance of high quality resource discovery metadata is a critical activity for sharing and using digital resources. However, metadata creation as an essentially manual process that is carried out by trained professional cataloguers is expensive, particularly if it is done well enough to support useful resource discovery services. Automated metadata generation is still in its infancy but several approaches and tools are worthy of consideration if metadata creation and maintenance is to made sustainable over the lifespan of digital resources.

This JISC-funded study aims to:

* identify the metadata needs of the JISC Information Environment;
* identify and evaluate the metadata generation and creation processes that are currently used within the JISC IE, and particularly the Portals programmes;
* identify currently available tools that are not being used by the JISC portals and ascertain the reasons for the lack of uptake;
* identify the areas most urgently requiring new or improved metadata generation tools;
* identify the most promising new techniques and approaches emerging from recent experimental research into automated metadata generation;
* identify how and where such recent innovations can be profitably harnessed within the JISC IE in order to maximise the effectiveness of automated metadata generation. The potential uses of such techniques within the JISC portal area and their implications for resource discovery within that environment will be assessed.

The study will run for 5 months, from 12 May to 13 October 2006.

For further information on the project please contact:

Malcolm Polfreman; Tel: 020 7848 1985 Email: --firstname.lastname@ahds.ac.uk--.

[Top]

* Full Project Proposal PDF document, 363KB

[Top]