Abstract:The Metadata Best Practices Task Force at the Colorado State University (CSU) Libraries developed a core set of metadata elements and an accompanying data dictionary to facilitate a coordinated metadata management approach for a central digital repository of diverse digital objects. This article describes the rationale for the Task Force and the process used for its work following a look at the background of digitization and past metadata practices at CSU. The article includes a literature review on institutional metadata projects and examples, and it ends with a description of the Task Force's ongoing work and plans for future assessment.

Libraries has been creating digitized collections, primarily from its Archives and Special Collections unit, since 2000. These projects involved collaboration among Archives, Cataloging, and Digitization; the most recent and ambitious project, digitizing 13,000 historical images of the university dating from the 1880s into the 1930s, required closer collaboration than any previous project. The three authors, each with a distinctive role in the project, use this case study to illustrate and discuss in detail the different professional and technical skills and perspectives that each brought to the project and how they learned from each other. The authors present lessons learned in how to effectively build successful internal partnerships to further digitization projects.

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