An emergent theory of digital library metadata : enrich then filter / Getaneh Alemu and Brett Stevens.

Online resource; title from PDF title page (Ebsco, viewed August 14, 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

An Emergent Theory of Digital Library Metadata is a reaction to the current digital library landscape that is being challenged with growing online collections and changing user expectations. The theory provides the conceptual underpinnings for a new approach which moves away from expert defined standardised metadata to a user driven approach with users as metadata co-creators. Moving away from definitive, authoritative, metadata to a system that reflects the diversity of users' terminologies, it changes the current focus on metadata simplicity and efficiency to one of metadata enriching, which is a continuous and evolving process of data linking. From predefined description to information conceptualised, contextualised and filtered at the point of delivery. By presenting this shift, this book provides a coherent structure in which future technological developments can be considered.

Front Cover; An Emergent Theory of Digital Library Metadata; Copyright Page; Contents; Authors biography; Re-thinking library metadata; 1 Introduction; The construction of metadata; Metadata categories; The continued relevance of metadata; 2 Existing standards-based metadata approaches and principles; The principle of sufficiency and necessity; The principle of user convenience; The principle of representation; The principle of standardisation; Integration and interoperability; Metadata derivation; Metadata application profiles; Metadata cross-walking (mapping); Metadata registries.

Re-structuring metadata for interoperabilityGuiding assumptions for the principle of standardisation; Controlled vocabularies; A priori metadata; Metadata structure; Metadata granularity; Metadata provenance and metadata quality; Limitations of contemporary standards-based metadata approaches; The future of metadata standards; Summary; 3 The Web 2.0 paradigm and the emergence of socially-constructed metadata approaches; Web 2.0 concepts; Platform for two-way collaboration; Users as co-creators; The wisdom of crowds; Variable participation; Openness; Post-hoc quality control.

Web 2.0 technologies and implications for librariesThe case of Wikipedia versus encyclopaedia Britannica; Limitations of the Web 2.0 paradigm; The social construction of metadata; 4 The emergence of socially-constructed metadata in a mixed metadata approach; The positioning of post-hoc metadata creation; The potential benefit of involving users; Current platforms proactive metadata co-creation; Tagging; User reviews; Ratings; Recommendation systems; Metadata crowdsourcing; Users as proactive metadata co-creators; Metadata diversity; Metadata scalability and variable metadata participation.

Metadata aggregationNetwork effect and wisdom of crowds; Self-healing system; Affixing provenance to metadata; Collective metadata intelligence; Motivation for socially-constructed metadata approaches; Reducing barriers to contribution; Simplicity, interestingness and fun; Re-findability; Altruism and reputation; Sense of ownership; Engaging with users; Challenges to implementing socially-constructed metadata approaches; Metadata quality control; Towards a mixed metadata approach; 5 The principle of metadata enriching; Metadata diversity; Metadata granularity; Platform for metadata enriching.

6 The principle of metadata linkingEnriching via linking; Current status of linking in libraries; Resource usage patterns, zeitgeist and emergent metadata; Facet-based navigations; Metadata enriching with links; Challenges to adopt linking technologies in libraries; Re-conceptualising library metadata as granular metadata statements; Unique metadata identifiers; Integrating socially-constructed metadata; Facilitate serendipitous discovery of information resources; Summary; 7 The principle of metadata openness; Improving institutional transparency and accountability.