UALC Best Practices Metadata Guidelines: A Consortial Approach

Abstract

The Utah Academic Library Consortium Task Force, formed from two of Utah Academic Library Consortium's standing committees, Cataloging and Digitization, was established to improve metadata for new digital and special collections input by the Mountain West Digital Library's members (http://www.mwdl.org). This article describes issues relating to metadata policies developed for a library consortium consisting of university, college, and public libraries and museums and historical societies in Utah, Nevada, and Idaho. It will explore the need for best practices, current and ongoing challenges with metadata in general, and the considerations taken in developing guidelines entitled: Metadata Guidelines for the Mountain West Digital Library.

KEYWORDS:

• Dublin Core
• controlled vocabulary
• metadata best practices
• cataloging
• digitization projects
• Mountain West Digital Library
• Utah Academic Library Consortium
• CONTENTdm