Value for money in automatic Metadata generation
Overview
Effective metadata adds value to information and enriches it by increasing accessibility, enhancing understanding, clarifying description, and consolidating context. Metadata can be simple or complex depending on the function it is fulfilling and the nature of the data it is supporting. Without it, the information user's ability to assess search results and select the most relevant is impaired. Hence the quality of the metadata created is pivotal to the impact and usefulness of the data collection it underpins. With the growth in the creation of information, there is an increasing need for quality metadata generation to keep pace. However, manually creating this metadata is expensive. This project aims to better understand the information search and retrieval needs of higher education so as to identify opportunities to increase the efficacy of metadata, and to improve efficiency of metadata generation processes in national and local services. Essentially it will investigate the trade-offs between "value to user" and "cost of creation" in order to establish the optimum point for value for money in metadata generation. In so doing this project will make more cost effective the delivery of scholarly resources for research and learning. Intute is uniquely placed to undertake this work because of the information held on the time and cost of manual metadata generation, the existence of the current Intute database of Internet resources for benchmarking purposes, and its unrivalled expertise in metadata creation and use. The outcomes of this project will be of enormous benefit to and stimulate change in the JISC community.
Lead Institution
Partner Institutions
- University of Nottingham
- University of Oxford
- University of Bristol