Forum

Introduction

In the course of the Focus' work, and particularly in the course of the workshops, a number of key issues for the implementation of collection-level description have surfaced as common problems shared by many projects and services. The Focus proposes that work on these shared problem areas might be addressed through an open Collection Description Forum operating on a similar basis to the Metadata for Education Group (MEG) which is facilitated by the Interoperability Focus.

The Forum will:

• allow participants to share information and experience on these issues
• develop consensus on means of addressing the problems
• capture this consensus in the form of guidelines for good practice which can be promoted through the Focus

The intention is that the Forum should operate, in the first instance at least, through dialogue on the collection-description mailing-list. Face-to-face meetings will also take place.

The issues highlighted in the first 12 months of the Focus' work included:

1. Reuse of collection-level descriptions: granularity and other factors
2. Content standards for collection-level descriptions e.g. terminology control and collection strength
3. Maintaining collection-level descriptions: implications for sustainability

This is not intended to be a "closed" list of issues: the Forum may well identify other topics suitable for debate and the development of guidelines.

Guidance Papers

As a starting point for the work of the Collection Description Forum, the CD Focus has prepared the following short papers:

• Creating reusable collection-level descriptions
• Maintaining collection-level descriptions
• Administrative metadata for collection-level description records

The purpose of these papers is not to provide comprehensive or definitive statements (at least in their initial form), but rather to open debate on these subjects, so that the papers can be refined and developed on the basis of implementer experience to create practical, "best practice" guidelines.