# /programs/ourwork/renovating/changingmetadata/aggregating.htm

originally: http://www.oclc.org/programs/ourwork/renovating/changingmetadata/aggregating.htm

# Sharing and Aggregating Social Metadata RLG Partners participating in discussions about renovating descriptive practices have identified network-level integrating and sharing of metadata contributions as an area that would benefit from collective action. These contributions could come from curators, subject librarians, experts, users, etc., both locally and globally, that can enrich the descriptive metadata created by libraries, archives and museums. To be truly effective, we need to share and aggregate contributions added by users in many diverse environments. Potential user contributions could include annotations of text, commentaries, reviews, links to related sources, images, etc. These contributions might originate in systems not designed by libraries, museums or archives. Ideally, these contributions would be open, available for searching, linking, contributing and extracting targeted information according to context. We are thinking of these contributions as a means to enrich descriptive metadata that could be presented, as desired, through "mashups," where contributions could be integrated within, separated out or excluded from a montage of information that includes descriptive metadata created by libraries, archives and museums. We recognize that these kinds of contributions are not necessarily tied to a specific title or work. For example, subject guides, course introductions, finding aids or exhibit commentaries often have good overviews of a particular field; they may have relevance beyond their immediate environment and provide valuable context for a variety of individual works in that field. A Social Metadata Working Group has been assembled to analyze issues that will need to be resolved to take full advantage of the array of potential user contributions by communicating and sharing them on the network level. The group will issue a report of our recommendations in the latter half of 2009. Among the questions the working group is addressing: What are the objectives for social metadata and how is success measured? What are the policy, administrative, and technical prerequisites for contributions to be searchable and retrieved in an open, networked environment? What best practices currently exist, or need to be developed, that can guide institutions in managing user contributions and various related issues? What provisions are needed to protect the privacy of the contribution? How can emerging folksonomies be incorporated into established taxonomies? How are cultural institutions integrating social metadata into formal taxonomies? What systems or interfaces keep social metadata and existing taxonomies separate, in parallel systems? ## Social Metadata Working Group Roster
Name | Institution
--- | ---
Drew Bourn | Stanford University, School of Medicine (Lane Medical Archives)
Douglas Campbell | National Library of New Zealand, Innovation Centre
Kevin Clair | Pennsylvania State University
Chris Cronin | University of Chicago
Christine DeZelar-Tiedman | University of Minnesota
Mary Elings | University of California, Berkeley, Bancroft library
Steven Galbraith | Folger Shakespeare Library
Cheryl Gowing | University of Miami
Rebekah Irwin | Yale University, Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library
Lesley Kadish | Minnesota Historical Society
Helice Koffler | University of Washington
Daniel Lovins | Yale University
John Lowery | British Library
Mark Matienzo | New York Public Library
Marja Musson | International Institute of Social History (Amsterdam)
Henry Raine | New-York Historical Society
Cyndi Shein | Getty Research Institute
Ken Varnum | University of Michigan
Melanie Wacker | Columbia University
Kayla Willey | Brigham Young University
Beth Yakel | University of Michigan, School of Information
This working group is staffed by John MacColl and Karen Smith-Yoshimura. |
For more information Karen Smith-Yoshimura Program Officer smithyok@oclc.org