[Metadata] Academic involvement in Metadata

[Helen Pickering <h.v.pickering@stir.ac.uk>]

Has there been any investigation of the attitude of academic staff towards
metadata? Have they been involved in metadata discussions at all, or have
most participants from academia been librarians and rightsholders? 

I'm trying to find out how much academic staff know about metadata, and if
they're likely to find it useful for locating and selecting teaching
resource. For example, if they are searching for material to include in a
reading list, will they be interested in the associated metadata?

The view I'm getting from the very small number of academic staff and others
who I've talked to about this is that, currently, metadata is of little
direct relevance to teaching staff. Certainly not for resource location,
although it may have more relevance for selection if rights metadata and
format information is available. For example, if staff can see that the
files are held as html, and they want to use pdf files, then they may decide
that that particular copy of the material is not appropriate for them, and
thus will not select that copy for their course.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Helen

Helen Pickering
HERON Copyright Officer 
The Library, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA
h.v.pickering@stir.ac.uk 
Phone +44 (0) 1786 466 615    Fax +44 (0) 1786 466 866     
Higher Education Resources On-demand (HERON)   
http://www.stir.ac.uk/infoserv/heron

....Madness takes its toll. Please have exact change.....

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