Article: A comparative analysis of metadata best practices and guidelines: issues and implications Journal: International Journal of Metadata, Semantics and Ontologies (IJMSO) 2015 Vol.10 No.4 pp.240 - 260 Abstract: Through a comparative analysis of local institutions' metadata guidelines based on Dublin Core (DC) metadata, the study examines variations and commonalities in terms of metadata usage and naming conventions and the usage of refinement qualifiers and encoding standards. The study also examines the influence of subject domain and resource type in naming conventions. The study results evince divergence across metadata guidelines especially designed for resource and domain specific repositories. The naming conventions indicate that DC metadata semantics may be too broad to describe the characteristics of domain and resource specific repositories, unlike cross-domain and heterogeneous resource types. The employment of a high number of refinement qualifiers may engender a higher degree of semantic specificity for describing heterogeneous resource types. The study provides insights into metadata semantics in relation to resource type, subject domain, and refinement qualifiers. The study also brings forth insights for metadata planning, quality control, and interoperability. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: A comparative analysis of metadata best practices and guidelines: issues and implications

Authors: Jung-Ran Park; Andrew Brenza; Caimei Lu

Addresses: College of Computing and Informatics, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA ' Free Public Library of Audubon, Audubon, NJ, USA ' College of Computing and Informatics, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Abstract: Through a comparative analysis of local institutions' metadata guidelines based on Dublin Core (DC) metadata, the study examines variations and commonalities in terms of metadata usage and naming conventions and the usage of refinement qualifiers and encoding standards. The study also examines the influence of subject domain and resource type in naming conventions. The study results evince divergence across metadata guidelines especially designed for resource and domain specific repositories. The naming conventions indicate that DC metadata semantics may be too broad to describe the characteristics of domain and resource specific repositories, unlike cross-domain and heterogeneous resource types. The employment of a high number of refinement qualifiers may engender a higher degree of semantic specificity for describing heterogeneous resource types. The study provides insights into metadata semantics in relation to resource type, subject domain, and refinement qualifiers. The study also brings forth insights for metadata planning, quality control, and interoperability.

Keywords: metadata guidelines; metadata best practices; Dublin Core metadata; metadata semantics; naming conventions; application profiles; digital collections; digital repositories; metadata interoperability; cultural heritage collections; metadata planning; quality control.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMSO.2015.074751

International Journal of Metadata, Semantics and Ontologies, 2015 Vol.10 No.4, pp.240 - 260

Received: 11 May 2015
Accepted: 06 Dec 2015
Published online: 16 Feb 2016 *

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Title: A comparative analysis of metadata best practices and guidelines: issues and implications

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