Digital initiatives, as described above, are necessarily complex projects that require some cross-functional collaboration. (Collaboration is understood to mean a cooperative effort between parties who share a common goal.) In institutions following the technical services model, the complexity is especially apparent. The metadata librarian in this alignment is a champion for goals for which the responsible personnel may not all be located in a single department or division, or report to the same manager. The task of cross-departmental collaboration by technical services or cataloging staff is not in itself unusual. Selection and ordering tasks require relationships between subject specialists, collection management teams, and technical services staff. The processing and description of special collections materials creates complex partnerships, often across divisions, such as cataloging and archives and special collections units. The collaborative role of the metadata librarian is different in that it also is a consultative role, requiring flexibility and negotiation as all parties design solutions that are mutually acceptable.

External collaboration (outside an organization) is becoming more and more common, and the advantages to cross-institutional collaboration, and that between industries, has been recounted elsewhere.⁸ Notable among these is the Google project to digitize the collections of several prominent libraries. Collaboration of this type is assisted by the effective communication of institutional standards and procedures, with an awareness of best practices. The metadata librarian is strategically placed to be a key resource in such discussions of collaborative digital projects.

The collaborative role is internal to technical services, as well as external. The metadata librarian must work with the technical services staff to develop procedures and documentation for metadata creation that support their work in as efficient a way as possible. Local practice, when it departs from national or international standards, or previous local practices, must be documented and shared. Service on internal library committees and project teams is a crucial part of collaboration. In addition to facilitating the creation of policies and guidelines that depend on broad agreement, participation brings the added benefit of creating a public face for the metadata librarian.

Collaboration on the national level is a key component of this role. Professional groups develop new standards, discuss new technologies for search and access, and share professional knowledge of approaches and solutions. A metadata librarian can contribute to local success by sharing internally the best practices and innovative approaches discussed by these national groups. Professional groups in the metadata and data standards communities can create great opportunities for cooperation and collaboration across institutions. Two examples of groups pursuing sharing metadata include the libraries within the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, and the Digital Library Federation’s Aquifer initiative.⁹

The last decade, and especially the last few years, has seen many spirited discussions of possible changes to longstanding traditions in the cataloging and description arena. In addition to announcements from the Library of Congress about changes in authority work, reports from institutions including (but not limited to) the University of California system have examined legacy cataloging practice and explored the possibility that it could be streamlined.¹⁰Resource Description and Access (RDA) will make significant changes to the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd ed. In the interests of following best practices and making cooperation with fellow institutions more efficient, many research libraries may wish to implement new workflows in their cataloging and technical services departments. Revising workflows and capacities can be politically and emotionally charged, even more so if positions are reassigned or eliminated as a result.

The metadata librarian, as one given the mandate to work with new initiatives and explore new possibilities, can be in a position to share these new ideas to the very people who will see changes to their employment situation. The metadata librarian has the opportunity to collaborate with technical services staff and their managers in providing a context for and facilitating such changes. As Higa and colleagues note, an institution-wide strategy must be implemented to avoid creating unnecessary tension in this area.¹¹

Acting as a researcher, the metadata librarian must maintain a knowledge and familiarity with the new developments in the field. Research is understood to mean systematic investigation and inquiry. The metadata librarian seeks to find information that will speed development of new initiatives within the library. This research often results in new tools for technical services and cataloging staffs.

The world of metadata and electronic resource access is a large one, in constant flux as standards are defined, edited, and created, and new ideas on searching and user interfaces are developed. As individual institutions grapple with existing standards and push up against the limits of these standards, libraries have the opportunity to inform, influence, or directly contribute to the metadata schema development. When libraries need to extend or refine these standards to fit their needs, they often will make this work publicly available in order to assist others. Although this sharing assists the community at large, it is less an act of charity than a tool to help every institution, including one’s own. A new language needs speakers to become meaningful, and the adoption of new standards helps build this meaning. Research helps build awareness of best practices and eases collaboration.

A universal problem exists with integrating a new mandate, such as metadata work, into a department focused on consistent and high output of catalog records. That problem is staffing—both in terms of available hours and available skills. As was mentioned earlier, in many cases creating descriptive records for digital resources requires more intensive description than is customary for catalog records. The level of expertise in a certain subject area may not be resident in a technical services or cataloging department. The time required to train staff to reach this level takes them away from their normal cataloging duties. The knowledge gained may not be applicable to other projects. The use of cataloging staff in this situation, building on and working with descriptive content contributed by others, may often require new software, schemas, or procedures. When libraries create metadata librarian positions, they generally charge these individuals with training other technical services staff in metadata applications, which in turn enhances the newly trained staff members’ utility to digital initiative managers.

Education, i.e., instruction, meshes tightly with the roles above, as it is crucial to ensure that the goals of creating efficient and effective metadata are present in all new library and information technology initiatives. The careful integration of new ideas and practices into those processes that have developed over time in cataloging and description workflows also is necessary.

As educator, the metadata librarian ensures that procedural and workflow changes are accommodated as easily as possible. Metadata librarian positions in the technical services model usually have education or instruction as a specific job duty. Position descriptions often include a technical services or cataloging audience, and a wider audience within the library and the university.¹²

The metadata librarian in a technical services model may encounter resistance to new standards and procedures on the part of staff in other library units or outside the library. For example, within a digitization project, the metadata librarian often must appeal to the collection manager to get the adherence to documented standards that is required. Staff outside of technical services may not understand the rationale for specified approaches and consistency in following them. However, education on the benefits of shared standards can be one important method by which the benefits of such cooperation and consistency are made clear.

The role as educator may expand beyond the library and institution in which the metadata librarian works. As he or she becomes known as knowledgeable and an advocate, the metadata librarian may be asked to teach workshops and give presentations in the state and region, thereby expanding understanding and skills among staff in other libraries.

Development, in this context, means the exploration of options and creation of new or revised approaches. The metadata librarian often must help develop methods to migrate, convert, and enhance metadata, making decisions on how best to balance new possibilities and existing realities. As a developer, the metadata librarian must be aware of the complexities and particulars of metadata schemas so that any needed migration or conversion can be as efficient as possible. The metadata librarian will need to read local documentation (or produce it, based on consulting with collection managers), while keeping in mind knowledge of common standards derived through research and past experience.

Many of the necessary tasks of metadata management and creation require documentation. The metadata librarian usually is expected to write technical documents to describe in a systematic fashion the structures, processes, and hierarchies of metadata schemes. This is one of the core functions described in nearly every metadata librarian job description. This documentation should be developed in the context of procedures and documentation with which the digital production staff are familiar and comfortable using.

Metadata is usually created with search access in mind. The metadata librarian, acting as developer, may be required to formulate ways to efficiently search through data in specific collections or to evaluate university-wide search tools. Taxonomies describing subject areas may be created for use both inside and outside the library’s purview. The metadata librarian, especially if in a new position, may be asked to contribute to projects that draw together data created in disparate digitization projects. The metadata librarian has an important role in advancing and developing such projects and products.