Making the Most of Your Descriptive Metadata: Planning, Transforming, and Re-using

Metadata is essential for organizing, searching, and managing information resources, particularly as libraries expand their efforts in making their collections available on the web. Libraries are populating institutional repositories with a myriad of resources, including digitized special collections materials, finding aids, electronic theses, peer-reviewed faculty work and other research, scholarship and creative outputs. But what are libraries doing about the descriptive metadata that allows users to search, find, and select these resources in their repositories? What redundancies are created when libraries engage in collecting, enhancing, or redistributing metadata in siloed systems? Can redundant metadata generation efforts be streamlined? We will discuss some current descriptive metadata practices in institutional repositories, identify areas where redundant efforts may occur, and discuss strategies to improve management, collection, and re-use of descriptive metadata.