Toward Releasing the Metadata Bottleneck

Abstract

Metadata creation is one of the most expensive components of digital projects. Organizational expertise (the correct structure, syntax, and use of metadata elements) and subject expertise (the appropriate semantic description of a resource’s content for users) are both needed to create a high-quality metadata record. Resource creators are frequently considered good metadata generators. Contributors or subject enthusiasts in a discipline are another population that may be good candidates for metadata creation. In this study, the quality of contributor-supplied metadata is evaluated. Metadata records submitted through a Web form are compared to the final published version of the record. Structural and semantic errors are noted throughout the records evaluated. Overall, semantic quality was good, reflecting subject expertise. The appearance and type of structural errors suggests that improvements in the interface can reduce contributors’ need to have organizational expertise to create high-quality metadata records.