MWI: About

The project will:

• explore how paths of discovery might affect the metadata creation process and metadata quality required.
• build upon a consensus view of metadata quality, based around the recommendations of the JORUM report and the experience of the FAIR projects.
• assess the effect of different metadata schemas on workflow processes and the quality of metadata produced.
• build up an understanding of potential metadata creation processes, and the resulting metadata quality and associated costs/benefits, practicality and sustainability. This includes addressing any current cultural or technical barriers currently to effective metadata creation.
• make recommendations on best practice within the JORUM national service and at institutional repository level.
• recommend metadata workflow models that produce metadata of sufficient quality to support the required functionality of the JORUM system in terms of information discovery and retrieval, repository management and interoperability with other systems.
• recommend metadata workflow models that produce metadata of sufficient quality to support the disclosure of institutional assets, for both internal and external discovery.
• consider potential roles and responsibilities for creation of metadata for actors at institutional level, intermediate level, and national repository service level, and at which levels quality assurance measures should be implemented.
• identify training needs and support mechanisms for those creating metadata and managing repositories within the e-learning and e-prints/e-theses communities.
• construct a Unified Modelling Language (UML) model of JORUM workflows and list the system requirements arising from the study that need to be implemented in the procured software system.

To acheive these objectives the project will consult with representatives from:

• the JORUM team and the project consultants;
• the FAIR projects within the eFAIR cluster;
• potential intermediaries such as the Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN) Generic centre and LTSN Subject Centres, and the Resource Discovery Network (RDN) Centre;
• representatives from X4L Strand A projects looking into this area, including Learning for a Healthier Nation, ARCHES, and The Learning Bank;
• organisations that represent institution-level actors, such as LTSN and Regional Support Centres;
• other agencies and organisations active in this area, for example CETIS, UK Data Archive, Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS), UKOLN, HLSI, FERL;
• the wider e-prints and e-theses communities, both nationally and internationally. This including OAI service providers (e.g., ePrints UK and OAIster) and established repositories, both subject and institutional (e.g., CogPrints/ArXiv and NDLTD);
• This aspect of the work should be undertaken in collaboration with the FAIR Programme Manager.
• FAIR and X4L Programme Managers.