LIS 7410 - Digital Libraries
Spring 2011 -- Section 01
Homework Assignment 2 (Professional Track) Alternative Option


Metadata Standards and Interoperability Review

Select a metadata standard or metadata technology to review. In your paper, discuss the significance of using the metadata standard to describe information resources, the specific functions/roles the metadata support, who are using the metadata, and whenever possible, provide some examples and describe your own hands-on experience with the metadata and/or its related technology. Then select a second metadata standard or technology, compare with (or contrast against) the one you have already studied, discuss the interoperability of the two metadata standards in detail.

Readings for Session 8 (Metadata and Markup) are helpful. The typology of data standards (Table 1) in Introduction to Metadata 3.0 helps to understand the typology of standards and to do the comparison/contrast. Digital Libraries: Universal Access to Human Knowledge. Report to the President. helps to understand the importance of metadata research and use.

Here are some metadata standards (and/or technologies) for your reference; you are highly encouraged to study metadata standards that interest you the most, which may not be on this list.

Students of previous semesters have studied: Your report might be at least 3 single-spaced pages (excluding illustrations and printouts of sample pages), but no more than 10 pages in total (including illustrations and bibliography). Please submit a Microsoft Word document (.rtf, .doc, or .docx, but not .wpd), a PDF document, or an HTML document. Post your document on your course Website (which you have already created for Assignment 1) by making a link from "Homework 2" to your document. You do not need to email your URL to the instructor again.

The grading guidelines may not apply to this assignment DIRECTLY, but are still useful for reference.


Acknowledgement to Xia Lin.

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Yejun Wu