A renaissance in library metadata? The importance of community collaboration in a digital world

This article summarizes a presentation given by Sarah Bull as part of the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) seminar ‘Setting the Standard’ in November 2015. Representing the library community at the wide-ranging seminar, Sarah was tasked with making the topic of library metadata an engaging and informative one for a largely publisher audience. With help from co-author Amanda Quimby, this article is an attempt to achieve the same aim! It covers the importance of library metadata and standards in the supply chain and also reflects on the role of the community in successful standards development and maintenance. Special emphasis is given to the importance of quality in e-book metadata and the need for publisher and library collaboration to improve discovery, usage and the student experience. The article details the University of Birmingham experience of e-book metadata from a workflow perspective to highlight the complex integration issues which remain between content procurement and discovery.