----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Hello Janet!
 
I would say you aren't that far behind folks in terms of metadata, except
maybe the Alexandria Project that Mary Larsgaard has so capably led the past
three years. Anyway, I'm willing to share what Melissa Lamont and I are
involved in with metadata here at PSU. By the way, for clarification I am
assuming you are talking about two different things here, creating
bibliographic records for geographic/geographic-related CD-ROM products and
creating metadata for online entities. If not I stand corrected.
 
However, to share what is happening at PSU I will break my comments into two
parts. First, is creating bib. records for CD-ROM products such as the DLQs
and DRGs. These are being handled in our Cataloging Department by a couple
of different staff members whose responsibilities include cataloging AV
material, with input from myself and from the Heads of our two collections
(Melissa Lamont and Linda Musser, along with Lisa Recupero). Bibliographic
records are/have been created either by downloading existing OCLC or RLIN
records into our online system (LIAS) or by creating original bibliographic
records directly into LIAS. I have not cataloged any of these products
directly onto OCLC because our online catalog does not use ISBD punctuation
plus a policy was made about the time I got here that original records for
these items would be created directly into our own system when we did not
have copy to use from one of the bibliographic utilities.
 
The CD-ROMs are then housed in the Maps Collection for the most part (I
think a very few have been cataloged for the Earth & Mineral Sciences
collection but it would be a very small number).
 
Probably more exciting and difficult is the project that Melissa and I are
involved in that is a part of a grant that the Libraries, the Deasy
Cartographic Laboratory, and the Environmental Resources Research Institute
(ERRI) garnered from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
(DEP) this past June. Basically, we are creating a Web site to both collect
and disseminate geospatial information to the residents of the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania and beyond. What is going on to the site is a combination of
datasets created by Pennsylvania DEP and/or ERRI and others available to us
through the U.S. Documents Program such as USGS's Digital Elevation Models
for Pennsylvania, the DLQs for Pennsylvania, and the DRGs for Pennsylvania
among others. Melissa's and my responsibility is to create metadata for each
of the datasets that are or will be mounted so that the user can both search
the Web site for particular datasets and also take with them the metadata
attached to any of the graphics that they wish to download.
 
We are using the Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata as our
basis for record creation and have developed an online workform based on the
Content Standard that is converted into a WAIS-retrievable record. The guys
at Deasy Cart Lab. are working wonders with the programming for the project
and Melissa and I are discovering how difficult the Content Standard is to
interpret at times as well as how exciting it is to see an online
description of a geospatial dataset. The project runs through next June and
we have a lot of work ahead of us, but a working Web site should be
available next Spring to the public at large.
 
As for your question of simply assigning a SuDoc# to each CD and entering it
into a separate database of CD holdings being the norm in the future that is
hard to say. Certainly it is one viable way of organizing a burgeoning CD
collection, but I suspect each institution will tackle the overall
organization and description of these types of collections based on a
variety of factors, not the least of which is what kind of hardware/software
and network capabilities exists in the institution.
 
I'm interested to hear what others are doing or plan on doing also. Any
other comments out there?
 
Paige
 
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Hi,
>
>Here is another one of those open-ended discussion questions --sorry, but
>we are just getting started with the issue of metadata.  (A little slow
>on this end, must be due to our nonstop rain?) Anyway,
>
>How many of your institutions are working on creating metadata of your
>holdings?
>
>Who is doing it?  Is it happening in your map collection?  cataloging
>department?  Does your cataloging department even know what it is?
>
>Our gov't docs dept. simply assigns a sudoc # and enters into a
>database of cd holdings.  Do you think that will be the norm?
>
>Many thanks in advance.  I'm looking forward to the responses!
>
>Janet Collins
>Huxley Map Library
>Western Washington Univ.
>