When Metadata Collides: Lessons on Combining Records from Multiple Repository Systems

Key Info
URL - the landing page for the learning resource: 
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2014070432382
Description - a brief synopsis, abstract or summary of what the learning resource is about: 
Institution X likes to use Dublin Core and enjoys occasionally storing coordinates in the dc: rights field along with normal rights statements. Institution Y prefers PBCore and dabbles in storing LCSH subject strings as a type of corporation. What happens when the time comes for these two institutions to put their data in a shared environment? These are the issues the Boston Public Library has been facing building a statewide digital repository for Massachusetts made up of items from dozens of organizations that each have their own way of doing metadata. This talk is on the Digital Commonwealth initiative and our role as a DPLA hub, lessons learned while dealing with other institutions' data, and how we manage a repository system that contains actual digitized objects alongside metadata-only harvested records. In addition, a portion of this talk is on breaking the conventional library wisdom of "dumbing down" data to the lowest common denominator in a shared context. Instead, we go in the opposite direction: we make what we take in much more rich and discoverable by linking terms to controlled vocabularies, parsing subjects for geographic information, parsing potential dates from various fields into a standard format, and more.

This presentation was part of Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014;  General Track, 24x7 Presentations 
The slides are available in PDF format at:  https://www.doria.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/97750/metadata_presentation.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

Authoring Person(s) Name: 
Steven Carl Anderson
Authoring Organization(s) Name: 
Boston Public Library
Access Cost: 
No fee
Primary language(s) in which the learning resource was originally published or made available: 
English
More info about
Keywords - short phrases describing what the learning resource is about: 
Data management
Data transformation
Metadata
Metadata editors
Published / Broadcast: 
Thursday, June 12, 2014
ID - identifier that provides the means to locate the learning resource or its citation: 
http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2014070432382
Publisher - organization credited with publishing or broadcasting the learning resource: 
Doria
Media Type - designation of the form in which the content of the learning resource is represented, e.g., moving image: 
Presentation - representation of the particular way in which an author shows, describes or explains one or more concepts, e.g., a set of Powerpoint slides.
Educational Info
Purpose - primary educational reason for which the learning resource was created: 
Professional Development - increasing knowledge and capabilities related to managing the data produced, used or re-used, curated and/or archived.
Learning Resource Type - category of the learning resource from the point of view of a professional educator: 
Text - body of a printed work, to include reading passages.
Target Audience - intended audience for which the learning resource was created: 
Data professional
Librarian
Publisher
Repository manager
Intended time to complete - approximate amount of time the average student will take to complete the learning resource: 
Up to 1 hour