Contents
1 Introduction 1
1.1 General introduction . . . . 2
1.1.1 Premise defended within the dissertation . . . . 2
1.1.2 Relevance of the research . . . . 3
1.1.3 Definition of the key concepts . . . . 4
1.2 Theoretical framework . . . . 8
1.2.1 Introducing the stratified time concept . . . 10
1.2.2 Applying the stratified time to a concrete example . . . 11
1.2.3 Interaction between the different time levels . . . 17
1.3 Working method . . . 18
1.3.1 Literature overview . . . 19
1.3.2 Case studies . . . 26
1.4 Structure of the dissertation . . . 32
1.5 Original findings and outcomes . . . 36
I Understanding metadata quality: a critical and original state of the art 39 2 Specificity of digitized cultural heritage 43 2.1 Introduction . . . 44
2.2 Unclear identification of the users and their needs . . . 44
2.2.1 Existing research on needs assessment . . . 45
2.2.2 Practical problems with user needs assessment . . . 47
2.2.3 Conceptual problems with user needs assessment . . . 48
2.3 Role of cultural heritage within society . . . 53
2.3.1 Increasing the social relevancy of heritage by digitization . 54 2.3.2 Increasing the economical relevancy of heritage by digiti- zation . . . 55
2.4 Dealing with connotative content . . . 58
2.4.1 Central role of images within digitization projects . . . 61
2.4.2 Specificity of images as documentation aid . . . 63
2.5 Conclusions . . . 64 i
ii CONTENTS 3 Applying ICT for metadata creation: an overview 69
3.1 Introduction . . . 70
3.2 Mismatched expectations . . . 70
3.2.1 Overview of the evolutions . . . 70
3.2.2 Confronting expectations with reality . . . 74
3.3 Metadata: old wine in new bags? . . . 76
3.3.1 Overview of the evolution of metadata . . . 77
3.3.2 Specific metadata schemes for the cultural heritage domain 81 3.4 Impact of ICT on metadata and metadata practitioners . . . 84
3.4.1 Consequences of ICT on metadata . . . 84
3.4.2 Professional status of metadata practitioners . . . 87
3.5 Current developments . . . 88
3.5.1 Ontologies . . . 89
3.5.2 Folksonomies . . . 93
3.5.3 Use-neutral metadata and mash-ups . . . 96
3.6 Conclusions . . . 98
4 Trends in metadata quality research 101 4.1 Introduction . . . 102
4.2 Metadata quality in other application domains . . . 102
4.3 Quality control in library cataloging . . . 106
4.3.1 Development of copy cataloging . . . 106
4.3.2 Defining quality in terms of speed and costs of access . . . 107
4.3.3 Google Books project . . . 108
4.4 First steps outside the library community . . . 112
4.5 Good enough approach: accepting bad quality metadata . . . 116
4.6 Conclusions . . . 117
II Dealing with metadata quality in practice: three origi- nal strategies 119 5 Applying data-profiling upon metadata records 123 5.1 Introduction . . . 124
5.2 Background of data-profiling in other domains . . . 125
5.3 Data-profiling within the cultural heritage sector . . . 126
5.4 Case study: the Royal Museum of Central Africa . . . 127
5.4.1 Presentation of the analyzed metadata set and its context 128 5.4.2 Presentation of the data-profiler tool . . . 131
5.4.3 Results of the analyses . . . 131
5.5 Conclusions . . . 138
6 Correcting metadata with user comments 141 6.1 Introduction . . . 142
6.2 Possible strategies toward metadata correction . . . 142
6.3 Cost-constrained metadata quality enhancement . . . 144
CONTENTS iii 6.3.1 Background of user-generated metadata . . . 145 6.3.2 Case study: the image database of the National Archives
of the Netherlands . . . 148 6.3.3 Case study: the Ross Archive of African Images . . . 156 6.4 Conclusions . . . 163 7 Monitoring needs with search interfaces 165 7.1 Introduction . . . 166 7.2 Conceptual model of dynamic search interfaces . . . 167 7.2.1 Gathering information on user needs . . . 167 7.2.2 Considering user actions as metadata of user needs . . . . 167 7.2.3 Monitoring metadata quality instead of direct marketing . 168 7.3 Case study: the September 11th Memorial and Museum . . . 170 7.3.1 Description of the September 11th Memorial and Museum 171 7.3.2 Description of CollectiveAccess . . . 173 7.3.3 Implementation of the dynamic search interface prototype 175 7.4 Conclusions . . . 178
8 Conclusions 181
8.1 Summary of the findings . . . 182 8.1.1 Operational strategies . . . 182 8.1.2 Critical analysis of the first decade of digitization projects 185 8.1.3 Holistic approach of metadata quality . . . 191 8.1.4 On the importance and the ambiguity of a user-centric
metadata quality approach . . . 196 8.1.5 Recommendations for metadata practitioners and policy
makers . . . 199 8.2 Future research . . . 203 8.2.1 Reporting tools for collection registration software . . . . 203 8.2.2 Convergence of libraries, archives and museums . . . 203 8.2.3 Interaction between digitized cultural heritage and his-
torical research . . . 206 8.2.4 Digital libraries curriculum development . . . 208
Appendices 211
A Primary sources 213
A.1 Interviews . . . 213
B Secundary sources 217
B.1 Websites . . . 217 B.2 Blogs . . . 218 B.3 Mailing lists . . . 218
Bibliography 221
