The School of Information and Library Science (SILS) Metadata Research Center <MRC> has been established to advance research in the area of metadata, semantics, and ontologies.

Digital resource repositories representing nearly every domain (e.g., scientific, educational, commerce, medical, cultural information domains) are growing rapidly as people, organizations, and enterprises continue to embrace the World Wide Web (WWW) for recording, preserving, and disseminating information.

Metadata is crucial for enhancing resource discovery in the digital environment, and is a fundamental component of the Semantic Web (see also: ASIS&T bulletin special issue on the Semantic Web). Metadata also supports a range of digital asset management functions, such as preservation, provenance tracking, authenticity verification, and life-cycle management.

Our growing digital environment invites a host of questions requiring rigorous investigation: Who should create metadata? What metadata-generation techniques (e.g., automatic and/or manual) are the most efficient and effective? What features should be included in metadata generation applications? How can Folksonomic systems be integrated into more formalized semantic structures?  What metadata best facilitates data sharing and reuse?  

The Metadata Research Center has been established to lead and facilitate research efforts addressing these and other significant questions related to metadata, semantics, and ontologies.

Metadata Research Center
School of Information and Library Science
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
216 Lenoir Drive
CB#3360, 100 Manning Hall
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3360

Email: mrc (at) ils (dot) unc (dot) edu