What's New
Library and Archives Canada (LAC) presents talk on harvesting user-generated metadata
Join us for the fifth session of the seminar series, New Directions in Description, to hear Sharon Reeves, from Library and Archives Canada (LAC), speak on the Theses
Canada Portal.
New Directions in Description: User-Generated Metadata for Harvested Theses
The national theses program was established at the National Library of Canada
in 1965 before computers became ubiquitous in the home and workplace and the Internet was just a dream on the horizon. Its goal was, and continues to be, twofold: to facilitate access to theses and dissertations approved by Canadian universities and to preserve them in the National Library's (now Library and Archives Canada's) collection.
The rapid pace of technological change has had a major impact on scholarly
communications in general and, more particularly, on theses and dissertations,
which many universities around the world are starting to accept in electronic
format.
In order to provide enhanced access to Canadian theses, Library and Archives
Canada has started to harvest electronic theses from Canadian universities using
the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). Graduate
students supply the initial metadata at the time they submit the final versions
of their theses. The metadata goes through a number of primarily automated conversions before finally ending up on AMICUS, LAC's online catalogue, in the form of MARC 21 bibliographic records.
This presentation will take a look at the metadata records at each stage of
conversion and discuss the issues related to, and the benefits of, user-generated
metadata.
Sharon Reeves is Manager of Theses Canada at LAC. She began her career in the
Collections Development Branch of the National Library of Canada in 1980. From
1985 until 2001, she worked in the Bibliographic Access Directorate of the Acquisitions and Bibliographic Services Branch (ABSB), first as a cataloguer and then as a
manager. After a short stint as ABSB Planning Coordinator, she became Manager
of the Canadian Theses Service in June 2002 (the name of the theses program was
changed to Theses Canada on April 1, 2003). Since coming to Theses Canada, her
focus has been on the development of the Theses Canada Portal, which was launched
in January 2004, and on developing the capacity to build a collection of electronic
theses at LAC.
The presentation will be in English, with simultaneous translation, and will
last approximately an hour. Questions will be taken in both languages after the
presentation. This talk will be of interest to those in the library, archival,
academic and information management communities.
When: Thursday, June 2, 2005, 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Where: Auditorium, 395 Wellington, Ottawa
Admission is free
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