Updates & New Address for MWDL Metadata Audit Tool

We're pleased to announce that our public metadata auditing tool, first launched in late 2015, has been updated this spring! With the addition of Oregon Digital to the MWDL member network, I thought it would be a good time to review the tool and make a few updates.

For those just tuning in, the tool was adapted from North Carolina Digital Heritage Center's DPLA OAI Aggregation project (available on GitHub) by MWDL's previous director, Sandra McIntyre.

How does it work? The tools use XSL to test and display the XML data from your OAI stream in an easy-to-read visual presentation, so you don't have to look through your records one at a time. They speed up the auditing process immensely! If you're not familiar with OAI and how it works, you can learn more on our page about OAI queries.

What's New? First, the tool has a new address: mwdlmetadata.tools.lib.utah.edu . The tool now resides on a newer server and we gave it a more branded URL than its previous dpla-aggregation.sandbox.lib.utah.edu. Please update your bookmarks!

The tool offers three features to aid in analyzing your metadata:

• Mapping checker (updated)- shows data from all fields in all records in a specific collection
• Required data checker (updated)- checks both required and recommended fields for conformance with MWDL MAP and highlights records where data may be missing
• Facet viewer (new)- Displays all values for a chosen field (title, subject, date, etc) in a specific collection

The mapping checker and required data checkers were both updated to test for OAI feeds configured differently than those coming from CONTENTdm. Over the past couple years, several members have shifted away from CDM to platforms like Samvera (formerly Hydra), Islandora, and even homegrown systems (University of Utah's Solphal). The Simple Dublin Core Required Data checker can be used with CDM, Islandora, and Solphal.

I added the Facet Viewer, which was part of NCDHC's original design but not included in the MWDL adaptation of the tool. The facet viewer displays all values used in a field descending order of frequency, and can help find inconsistencies, spelling errors, and other issues with metadata. Here's how it looks in action, viewing subjects from Utah State University's Topaz Japanese-American Relocation Center collection:

Please send any feedback or enhancement ideas for the tool to me at teresa.hebron[at]mwdl.org, and happy auditing!

New tools for rapid auditing of your collections metadata

A few months back, we learned about some useful tools for metadata auditing. The North Carolina Digital Heritage Center shared these tools with other Service Hubs in the Digital Public Library of America network, including MWDL. I customized NCDHC's tools to reflect the required and recommended fields in the MWDL Dublin Core Application Profile. We have started to use them to audit metadata for new collections submitted for aggregation into MWDL, and they really speed up this process!

Now our collections partners can use them as well for their own metadata auditing while creating or revising collections. These tools make it easy to examine the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) provision of metadata from your digital assets management system, so you can check it for conformance to MWDL and DPLA standards. They display the OAI data in an attractive, easy-to-read format, so you don't have to pore through records one by one or look at hundreds of lines of tagged XML. 

Go to MWDL's site for the DPLA OAI Aggregation Tools and speed up your metadata auditing!  So far, I have adapted them for use with the Qualified Dublin Core metadata format, specifically CONTENTdm's "oai_qdc". We will release them for simple Dublin Core ("oai_dc") soon. 

1. QDC Mapping Checker shows the values by field for all records in a given collection.
2. Required Data Checker shows any missing values for required and recommended fields in a given collection. 

Let us know what you think, and new functionality you would like to see to make checking your metadata faster and easier. Contact me at sandra.mcintyre@utah.edu with your comments.

A Day In the Life of Your Metadata Librarian

I've noticed that sometimes my work comes in different types of waves. When I first started my position my major project was adding the great collections from the Arizona Memory Project. Since then I've been adding new collections here and there as they come in, as well as working on a reharvesting project with our collections from Brigham Young University's Harold B. Lee Library.

I've recently been doing a great deal of metadata auditing, which means shortly after that's done we will be adding even more new collections to MWDL! Today we have new collections from Utah Valley University, and we'll soon be adding new collections from Brigham Young University, Montana Memory Project, University of Idaho, Northern Arizona University, Weber State University, Arizona Memory Project, and more!

When we add new collections to Primo, we also need to update our master tracking spreadsheet, update the php includes that make mwdl.org run so smoothly, and create new web pages for partners and collections. 

I'm about to take a class on XSLT and XQuery, which I'm hoping will help me become an even more efficient and useful metadata librarian! I'm hoping to come up with some procedures that will help me audit metadata against the MWDL application profile in a more comprehensive manner. Stay tuned for my adventures with XSLT and XQuery!