An Emergent Theory of Digital Library Metadata

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Introduction

The organisation of library collections has had an enduring history. The description of books through cataloguing has played a significant role in identifying, locating and finding the required item on library shelves. However, the volume and diversity of digital information resources now available, with ubiquitous access to the web, has bought new challenges to libraries along with a potential solution, in the form of metadata. Metadata provides the descriptive, structural and administrative information necessary to effectively access and utilise digital information objects. However, current library metadata standards are based upon the conceptual underpinnings that were developed for print book collections and the library card ...