The subject of the course is to get acquainted with the basic concepts of metadata and their management, i.e. their production, the creation of metadata schemas and standards, the use of metadata standards and their exploitation.

The course will present representative metadata standards used in libraries, archives and museums to describe documents and objects.

In particular, Dublin Core, Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS), Encoded Archival Description (EAD), and VRA Core 4 will be presented. Finally, topics related to the metadata interoperability will be presented.

In addition to the theoretical part of the course, the laboratory part includes the familiarization of students with the use of metadata schemas and standards to describe conventional and digital material.

The aim of the course is to acquire students a comprehensive and in-depth knowledge of the basic principles of metadata production, management and interoperability and to get in touch with specific metadata standards used in Archives, Libraries and Museums.

Week #1: Definitions: documents, objects and metadata.

Week #2: Types of metadata and their applications. Metadata schemas and their use in description of documents and objects in Archives, Libraries and Museums.

Week #3: Dublin Core metadata element set.

Week #4: Dublin Core Qualified. The notion of Application Profiles. Dublin Core Application Profiles.

Week #5: MODS metadata standard.

Week #6: MODS metadata standard.

Week #7: MODS metadata standard: Examples of using MODS in describing various types of documents. 

Week #8: EAD metadata standard.

Week #9: EAD metadata standard.

Week #10: EAD metadata standard.

Week #11: VRA Core metadata standard.

Week #12: VRA Core metadata standard.

Week #13: Metadata interoperability issues.

Main bibliography

• Caplan, Priscilla, Metadata fundaments for all librarians, American Library Association, Chicago, 2003.
• Haynes, David, Metadata: for information management and retrieval, Facet, 2004, London, 2004.
• Smiraglia, Richard, Metadata: a cataloger's primer, Haworth Information Press, Binghamton, NY, 2005.

Official Web Pages of Metadata Standards:

• http://dublincore.org/
• http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/
• https://www.loc.gov/standards/vracore/
• https://www.loc.gov/ead/

Lectures making extensive use of visual aids. Practical training takes place in the computer laboratory. Besides, students are required to prepare a number of projects.

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Course evaluation includes: a) Written examination for the theoretical part of the course, b) Presentation and examination of the student projects in laboratory. The final grade is obtained as the average of the two grades.