This study explores the current state of metadata-creation practices across digital repositories and collections by using data collected from a nationwide survey of mostly cataloging and metadata professionals. Results show that MARC, AACR2, and LCSH are the most widely used metadata schema, content standard, and subjectcontrolled vocabulary, respectively. Dublin Core (DC) is the second most widely used metadata schema, followed by EAD, MODS, VRA, and TEI. Qualified DC’s wider use vis-à-vis Unqualified DC (40.6 percent versus 25.4 percent) is noteworthy. The leading criteria in selecting metadata and controlled-vocabulary schemata are collection-specific considerations, such as the types of resources, nature of the collection, and needs of primary users and communities. Existing technological infrastructure and staff expertise also are significant factors contributing to the current use of metadata schemata and controlled vocabularies for subject access across distributed digital repositories and collections. Metadata interoperability remains a major challenge. There is a lack of exposure of locally created metadata and metadata guidelines beyond the local environments. Homegrown locally added metadata elements may also hinder metadata interoperability across digital repositories and collections when there is a lack of sharable mechanisms for locally defined extensions and variants.

This article evaluates practices on metadata quality control in digital repositories and collections using an online survey of cataloging and metadata professionals in the United States. The study examines (1) the perceived importance of metadata quality, (2) metadata quality evaluation criteria and issues, and (3) mechanisms for building quality assurance into the metadata creation process. The survey finds wide recognition of the essential role of metadata quality assurance. Accuracy and consistency are prioritized as the main criteria for metadata quality evaluation. Metadata semantics greatly affects consistent and accurate metadata application. Strong awareness of metadata quality correlates with the widespread adoption of various quality control mechanisms, such as staff training, manual review, metadata guidelines, and metadata generation tools. And yet, metadata guidelines are used less frequently as a quality assurance mechanism in digital collections involving multiple institutions. 696 Metadata Quality Control in Digital Repositories and Collections INTRODUCTIONAs the rapid proliferation of digital library projects has raised various critical issues and concerns regarding metadata policies and implementations, one of the areas demanding more vigorous research is the quality of metadata in digital repositories. Initiating new digital collections from the ground up leads to a series of challenging metadata decisions, including selection of metadata schemes, semantics, content rules, controlled vocabularies, and metadata creation workflow. And yet, "once a metadata standard has been implemented within a system," Currier noted, "the specified fields must be filled out with real data about real resources, and this process brings its own problems." 1 Evaluation of metadata records created for specific digital projects might reveal that their quality is not sufficient to support successful end-user resource discovery and access. Metadata quality is an even more critical issue in the aggregated environment, as Shreeves, Riley, and Milewicz point out in their article on shareable metadata, because metadata interoperability based on accurate and consistent resource description is necessary to ensure that metadata will remain meaningful outside "its local context." 2The goal of this study is to assess practices that impact metadata quality in digital repositories through an online survey data mostly drawn from the community of cataloging and metadata professionals in the United States. We explore the following questions:• What are prevailing perceptions of metadata quality in digital repositories?• What are major criteria used to measure metadata quality?• What are major issues encountered in ensuring metadata quality?• What are major mechanisms used to improve metadata quality?We will present an overview of recent studies relating to metadata quality, followed by the survey methodology and data employed to conduct this study and the general characteristics of the survey respondents. Then, we will examine how...

Resource Description & Access (RDA) is intended to provide a flexible and extensible framework that can accommodate all types of content and media within rapidly evolving digital environments while also maintaining compatibility with the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules, 2nd edition (AACR2). The cataloging community is grappling with practical issues in navigating the transition from AACR2 to RDA; there is a definite need to evaluate major subject areas and broader themes in information organization under the new RDA paradigm. This article aims to accomplish this task through a thorough and critical review of the emerging RDA literature published from 2005 to 2011. The review mostly concerns key areas of difference between RDA and AACR2, the relationship of the new cataloging code to metadata standards, the impact on encoding standards such as Machine-Readable Cataloging (MARC), end user considerations, and practitioners' views on RDA implementation and training. Future research will require more in-depth studies of RDA's expected benefits and the manner in which the new cataloging code will improve resource retrieval and bibliographic control for users and catalogers alike over AACR2. The question as to how the cataloging community can best move forward to the post-AACR2/MARC environment must be addressed carefully so as to chart the future of bibliographic control in the evolving environment of information production, management, and use.

. We would like to thank Jeffrey Weng for his editorial assistance and the anonymous reviewers for their invaluable comments and suggestions. © Yuji Tosaka and Cathy WengContent-enriched metadata in bibliographic records is considered helpful to library users in identifying and selecting library materials for their needs. The paper presents a study, using circulation data from a medium-sized academic library, of the effect of content-enriched records on library materials usage. The study also examines OPAC search transactions of circulated items to learn how enriched metadata is used. The findings show that enhanced records were overall associated with higher circulation rates and that keyword search was the most frequently used search option directly associated with circulation. Contents data can play a key role in discovery. Libraries should continue to provide and exploit content-enriched metadata. The combination of optimal library system data mining capability, postsearching evaluation, and OPAC display are crucial to achieve content-enriched access.