Thinking Collectively

Introduction

The first Collection Description Focus workshop explores the concept of the collection, and how it is interpreted and deployed within the different traditions of information management. These different approaches have led to divergences in descriptive practice, and variations in the importance placed on the description of aggregates of resources.

The emergence of networked information services and the expectations of information users to be able to access resources from across the holdings of diverse organisations, has led to a growing recognition that resource description at collection level in a structured, standardised, machine-readable form can facilitate resource discovery.

The realisation of this potential requires consensus on the the adoption of consistent and compatible approaches to collection description, within and across domains.

This Workshop brings together practitioners from across the information management traditions and from different backgrounds and contexts. It will explore how approaches to collection description differ and what they have in common. It will examine how generic models and schemas have been implemented, and the challenges involved. It will seek to highlight where practice can be standardised and to investigate where generic approaches must give way to domain-specific methods.

The Workshop will combine presentation sessions with discussions in smaller groups.

There is no charge for this event.

Target audience: The event is aimed at practitioners working in this area, including those describing collections or developing and implementing services which utilise such descriptions, and those with an interest in the development and deployment of standards in this area.