Miller, Steven J. Metadata for digital collections : a how-to-do-it manual. Facet Publishing, 2011.
Over the weekend, I read Steven Miller’s book “Metadata for digital collections : a how-to-do-it manual.” Overall, the book was a perfect introduction to the fascinating (and still developing!) field of metadata in the context of digital collections. The book found a very nice balance between abstract theory and practical advice and was easily readable by someone with no professional training in the field.
In particular, his explanations and examples of the Dublin Core set of metadata in actual digital collections was a strength of this book. It provided a strong overview of some of the more nuanced elements of the Dublin Core – type vs. format, for example – as well as some other principles relevant to creating digital collections within a broad metadata framework.
Moving forward, I plan to continue reviewing and revisiting this book as a I begin to plan and explore the joys and challenges of creating my own digital collections within the Dublin Core framework using Omeka. I think that will be the best way to really comprehend the subtle differences among the elements and see how a universal set of standards can be adapted to describe a unique set of digital objects.
I thought this book was very readable and very worthwhile. I clearly accomplished the goals set out in the preface: “[to guide] students and working professionals through the basics of digital resource description, raising their awareness of commonly encountered challenges, along with common solutions” for a variety of different metadata schemes and to leave readers with “a solid working knowledge of metadata for digital resources that they can put to use in their jobs or take with them into today’s professional marketplace.” (xvii and xxi, respectively)
I plan on keeping it on my shelf and will likely reference it frequently in the days and months ahead. Highly recommended.