News and Events
Dr. Jane Greenberg awarded the 2012 Margaret Mann Citation
February 23, 2012
The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) has announced that Dr. Jane Greenberg, professor at the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the recipient of the 2012 Margaret Mann Citation presented by its Cataloging and Metadata Management Section (CaMMS). The Mann Citation will be presented at the ALCTS Awards Ceremony on June 24, 2012 at the American Library Association Annual Conference in Anaheim, Calif.
The Mann Citation, recognizing outstanding professional achievement in cataloging or classification, includes a $2,000 scholarship donated in the recipient’s honor by OCLC, Inc. to the library school of the winner’s choice. Greenberg has chosen SILS to be the recipient of this year’s scholarship award. More information can be found here.
Metadata Marathon
October 19, 2011
In celebration of the Metadata Research Center’s 5th year anniversary, we will be hosting a Metadata Marathon. Join us for lunch and an afternoon of metadata-focused discussion including lightning talks from metadata experts, breakout groups to discuss the future of metadata research needs, and the opportunity to participate in a published report.
Automating the Buzz - HIVE: Helping Interdisciplinary Vocabulary
July 6, 2011
The HIVE project was featured in this SILS announcement.
Cataloging Research Blitz at ALA Annual Conference
June 21, 2011
List of Presenters: ALA Research Blitz
For those attending the American Library Association (ALA) Conference, please come to play the Blitz! @ the Cataloging & Classification Research Interest Group on Sunday, June 26th from 10:30 a.m. to noon. The Blitz will be part of the Annual Conference in New Orleans, and will be held at the Sheraton Napoleon A1. School of Information and Library Science participants include Dr. Jane Greenberg, professor and director of the SILS Metadata Research Center; SILS alumna, Joyce Chapman; and SILS students Shay Beezley, Lauren Kage and Jessica Mlotkowski. More information can be found here.
Diane Hillmann, distinguished guest, to talk about RDA, FRBR, and the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative’s support for RDA vocabularies
What: 2010 Open Metadata Class / Cataloging Research Blitz number 3
Who: Diane I. Hillmann, Director of Metadata Initiatives, Information Institute of Syracuse; and Partner, Metadata Management Associates
When: Monday, December 6, 12:30-1:30, with a reception to follow
Where: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Wilson Library, Pleasants Family Assembly Room
Title: RDA (Resource Description and Access): Beyond Cataloging Rules
Abstract: RDA is more than a set of cataloging rules; it is an implementation of a new model of bibliographic data based on the entities and relationships that are defined in the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR). This new model is highly compatible with the concepts underlying the Semantic Web and provides libraries with a unique opportunity to be part of the growing web of data. Hillmann will describe the work done by the DCMI/RDA Task Group to build the RDA Vocabularies, related work done by TG co-chair Gordon Dunsire on the IFLA vocabularies: ISBD, FRBR, FRAD and FRSAR, and the implications of that work for libraries.
Biographical Note: Diane Hillmann is currently a partner in the consulting firm Metadata Management Associates and Director of Metadata Initiatives at the Information Institute of Syracuse. From 1977 to 2008 she was associated with Cornell University Library, as a Law cataloger, technical services manager, and manager of authorities and maintenance processes for the Cornell Library’s database. She also participated in the Cornell portion of the National Science Digital Library Core Infrastructure as Director of Library Services and Operations between 2000-2005. Diane was a liaison to and member of MARBI from the late 1980’s to 2000, specializing in the Holdings and Authorities formats, which lead to her early participation in the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. She is currently a member of the DCMI Advisory Board, was co-Program Chair for the DC-2010 conference in Pittsburgh, and continues as co-chair of the DCMI/RDA Task Group. She was formerly editor of “Using Dublin Core” and a charter member of the DCMI Usage Board. Diane edited (with Elaine Westbrooks) “Metadata in Practice,” published by ALA Editions (2004) and publishes frequently on digital library and metadata issues in the Metadata Matters blog.
Supported by the SILS Metadata Research Center and the University of North Carolina Libraries.
Fall Cataloging Research Blitz: Second in a Series
August 30th, 2010
Presentation: Fall Research Blitz
On a hot summer day in Chapel Hill, blitzers presented their research to a crowd of almost fifty students, faculty, library staff and visitors at Davis Library. The three-minute blitzes covered a wide range of research areas including geotagging, ebook collection coverage, information visualization, non-traditional cataloging, folksonomies, and metadata quality. A list of particpants from the UNC Libraries, SILS and RENCI and their presentations are now available.
The Fall Research Cataloging Blitz was the second in a three-part series that celebrates 2010, as the “Year of Cataloging Research.” The UNC Libraries and School of Information and Library Science (SILS) Metadata Research Center coordinated the event. Margaretta J. Yarborough, head of Resource Description and Management, and Dr. Jane Greenberg, SILS professor and director of the Metadata Research Center, UNC Libraries organized and kicked-off the blitz, as well as the social meet and greet activities afterward.
The final blitz will be held on December 6th, 2010, focusing on Resource Description and Access (RDA). Please join us for a presentation by special guest Diane Hillmann, Director of Metadata Initiatives at the Information Institute of Syracuse and partner in the consulting firm Metadata Management Associates. We hope to see you there!
Dr. Jane Greenberg wins 2010 Jesse H. Shera Award for Distinguished Published Research
April 22nd, 2010
Paper: Theoretical considerations of lifecycle modeling: An analysis of the Dryad repository demonstrating automatic metadata propagation, inheritance and value system adoption
Dr. Jane Greenberg, professor and director of the Metadata Research Center, of the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been awarded the 2010 Jesse H. Shera Award for Distinguished Published Research by the Library Research Round Table of the American Library Association (ALA).
Greenberg wrote the winning paper titled, “Theoretical considerations of lifecycle modeling: An analysis of the Dryad repository demonstrating automatic metadata propagation, inheritance and value system adoption”. The article explores lifecycle modeling for understanding metadata and reports the results of two extensive studies.
More information can be found here.
A Cataloging Research Blitz: Celebrating 2010 as the Year of Cataloging Research!
April 19th, 2010
Presentation: A Cataloging Research Blitz!!!
Library of Congress guests, SILS students and faculty, UNC Library staff and visitors from the Research Triangle Park and surrounding libraries came together for a celebration that featured a blitz on cataloging research. A list of the Blitzers can be found here. This was the first *blitz* of three (3), sponsored by the SILS Metadata Research Center and the UNC Libraries, to celebrate 2010 as the year of cataloging research.
Several SILS students and UNC library staff “blitzed” through their cataloging/metadata research, followed by a reception.
Library of Congress guests included:
~ Barbara B Tillett, Chief, Policy and Standards Division, LC
~ Libby Dechman, Senior Policy Specialist, LC
~ Ed Summers, Software Developer/Librarian, LC
More information on the event can be found here.
LOC guests visit seminar for Knowledge Organization at SILS
April 21st, 2010
Presentation: Barbara Tillet’s slides
Earlier in the afternoon, LOC guests participated in a “Seminar on Knowledge Organization” that Greenberg teaches annually. Tillett gave a presentation entitled, Building Blocks for the Future: Making Controlled Vocabularies Available for the Semantic Web, Summers spoke about linked data and Dechman followed Summers presentation demonstrating the LOC Authorities and Vocabularies service moving towards linked data. Greenberg opened her class to members of the UNC library community.
Lee Dirks, Director of Education & Scholarly Communications in Microsoft’s External Research division, presents on innovative technology for scholarly communication
April 14, 2010
The SILS/Metadata Research Center and the UNC Scholarly Communications Group hosted a special session with Lee Dirks of Microsoft.
PDF: The MSR Scholarly Communication Fact Sheet May09
Presentation: Transforming Scholarly Communication
Date/time/place: Wednesday, April 14, 2010, 10:00-11:00 AM/UNC Manning Hall, Room 01
Abstract: Lee Dirks leads a team that serves as a critical link between academia and Microsoft product groups developing scholarly communication technologies. Their aim is to: (1) Optimize for data-driven research and science; (2) Enable broad community engagement through greater interoperability; (3) Help ensure that data storage is reliable and secure for the long term; (4) Build on existing community protocols, practices and guidelines; (5) Harness collective intelligence through social networking and intelligence through social networking and semantic knowledge discovery. Lee’s presentation will provide an overview of the recent accomplishments and work in progress with institutions around the world as well as our vision and some future plans.
SILS’ annual Open Metadata Class, sponsored by the Metadata
Research Center
November 30, 2009
This year’s distinguished guest is Matt Jones, Director of Informatics Research and Development, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara
Presentation: Beyond discovery: Using Metadata to Drive Scientific Data Integration and Analysis
Date/time/place: November 30, 2009, 2:00-3:15, UNC Campus, Undergraduate Library, Room 205
Biographical Note: Matthew Jones is the Director of Informatics Research and Development at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at UC Santa Barbara. His research addresses the management, integration, analysis, and modeling of heterogeneous data. Recent projects have produced effective new techniques for information management and analysis. Jones co-founded the Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (KNB), a long-term data archive of environmental data sets. He contributed to the creation and ratification of the Ecological Metadata Language and the Biological Data Profile metadata standards. Recent projects focus on Kepler, an open-source scientific workflow system that Jones co-founded with other researchers; DataONE, a global data repository aimed to promote access to data about life on earth and the environment; and SONet, an effort to achieve environmental data interoperability through semantic modeling of scientific observations. Jones has a B.A. degree in ecology from Dartmouth College, and a M.S. in Zoology from the University of Florida.
Press Release 2009
August, 2009
BotCamp part of BOT 2.0, is an innovative program featuring a curriculum that weaves together botany, environmental conservation, the use of social technologies and metadata literacy. The program is designed to recruit, educate and retain nontraditional students in the study of botanical science. BOT 2.0 is funded through a grant from the National Science Foundation and it is led by Dr. Jane Greenberg, SILS professor and director of the Metadata Research Center at SILS, and Dr. Alan Weakley, curator of the UNC Herbarium, a department of the North Carolina Botanical Garden. (More information about the program can be found here.)
First official meeting of the Dryad Consortium Management Board takes place at NESCent
May, 2009
The first meeting of the Dryad Consortium Management Board was held May 21-22, 2009 at NESCent in Durham, NC. Representatives from over a dozen journals met to launch and plan for the future of the consortium. Topics discussed included board governance, repository sustainability, the Joint Data Archiving Policy, intellectual property, repository policy, interactions with journals and other repositories, repository software development plans, and community engagement. A schedule of events is already available, and notes from the meeting are forthcoming.
Hollie C. White awarded 2009 A. R. Zipf Fellowship
May, 2009
Hollie C. White, Metadata Research Center Doctoral Fellow, has been awarded a 2009 CLIR A. R. Zipf Fellowship in Information Management. Congratulations, Hollie!
$2.18 million NSF grant awarded to Dryad
May, 2009
The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) and the Metadata Research Center (MRC) have been developing Dryad in coordination with a large group of journals and societies in evolutionary biology and ecology. With the new grant, the additional team members are contributing to the development of the repository. (More information about the award can be found here.)
NC Health Info website featured on RENCI blog
March, 2009
The NC Health Info website is featured on the RENCI (Renaissance Computing Institute) blog. The entry is entitled, “Metadata Matters.” For more information, please see the Automatic Metadata Maintenance for NC Health Info and Go Local (AMMGO) project page.
OCLC’s Ed O’Neill visits School of Information and Library Science
March, 2009
Ed O’Neill is a Senior Research Scientist, OCLC. His research focuses on authority control, subject analysis, database quality, preservation, and collection management. He joined the OCLC Research staff as a Senior Research Scientist in 1983, and served as co-acting Director of Research from 1993 until 1994.
Monday, March 23, Ed will visit Dr. Jane Greenberg’s Knowledge Organization seminar. In the afternoon, he will give a lecture entitled, “Building Collections Cooperatively: Analysis of Collection Use in the OhioLINK Library Consortium.”
Details:
Monday, March 23, 2009, 3:00-4:00 p.m
UNC’s Undergraduate Library, Room 205
Abstract:
With the increasing demand for resources and budget constraints, it is important for librarians to use data to make informed decisions. The OhioLINK consortium provides library resources statewide for 87 academic institutions in Ohio that serve 600,000 faculty, staff, students, and researchers. OhioLINK institutions are a diverse group of academic libraries; large research universities and small community colleges and include both public and private institutions.
The OhioLINK circulation records are the largest and most diverse set of book usage data ever gathered to study usage patterns in academic libraries and is breaking new ground in collection analysis at the consortial level.
The presentation will report on a large-scale study examining consortial usage and lending patterns. The planning, data collection, analysis, and significant findings will be discussed. The research questions to addressed include: 1) What types of materials are not used or are underused? 2) Are there similar usage and collection patterns between the large research universities and the small community colleges? 3) Are there too few books in some disciplines and too many in others? 4) Are the books appropriately distributed across institutions? 5) What books are the best candidates for remote or compact storage or alternate formats such as e-books?
New Dublin Core Metadata Initiative Community: Science and Metadata (SAM)
February, 2009
Following a workshop session on Metadata for Scientific Datasets at DC-2008, a new DCMI Community has been set up under the name of the DCMI Science and Metadata Community (SAM). We welcome participation from individuals and organizations interested in all aspects of metadata relating to scientific data. To learn more about this community, or become involved, visit the Community’s website at Dublin Core and the Metadata Research Center’s SAM website.
CRADLE Seminar: Celebrating Darwin Day — Metadata Research and the Dryad Repository Project
February, 2009
Presented by: Jane Greenberg and Hollie White
208 Manning Hall
12 noon, Friday, Feb 13th
The Dryad repository is for scientific data supporting published research in the field of evolutionary biology and related disciplines. Dryad was launched via a collaboration between the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent), an NSF Center supporting research in evolutionary biology, and the Metadata Research Center (MRC) at the School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dryad seeks to balance a need for low barriers inviting contribution from scientists and higher-level goals supporting data analysis activities. The Dryad development team has pursued an active metadata research agenda. This CRADLE talk will introduce the Dryad repository, provide an overview of current metadata research activities, and highlight several research accomplishments.
Two repository development positions available
November, 2008
The Dryad Data Repository has two open programming positions located in central North Carolina: (1) a general repository programmer and (2) a programmer focused on enhancing metadata records with controlled vocabulary terms. Dryad stores data underlying scientific publications from evolutionary biology and related fields. Dryad is being developed by the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) and the Metadata Research Center (MRC) at the University of North Carolina in coordination with several scientific journals and societies.
(1) The Dryad Repository Programmer will support general repository development activities, enhancing systems for preserving, searching, and distributing scientific data. This position is funded for 3 years, with possibility for extension. It will be located at NESCent in Durham, NC, and information about applying can be found on the NESCent site.
(2) The Dryad/HIVE Programmer will apply the SKOS standard to improve the Dryad cataloging system, developing software to select and manage terms from multiple controlled vocabularies and ontologies. The position (number: 0058793) is funded for 21 months, with possibility for extension. It will be located at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Apply now through the UNC Chapel Hill Office of Human Resources. The position will close on December 10, 2008.
Please see the NESCent site for full position descriptions.
DICE Group Lecture
November, 2008
Drs. Reagan Moore and Richard Marciano, Professors at the School of Information and Library Science, UNC Chapel Hill, and members of the Data Intensive Cyber Environments (DICE) research group, will be giving a lecture entitled, “Policy-driven metadata for distributed collections,” on November 24, 2008. The lecture, which is open to the public and hosted by the Metadata Research Center, will be in room 205 in the Undergraduate Library, UNC Chapel Hill, from 11am - 12:15pm. Coffee and pastries will be available 10:30 - 11:00 am.
Topics covered by the presentation will include:
- Identification of metadata required to organize distributed data into a shared
collection for use in a digital library or preservation environment. - Identification of management policies that are needed to make assertions about
collection properties. This immediately raises the question whether metadata mandates
are driven by the set of management policies, or whether management policies are driven
by metadata mandates. - Demonstration of applications of policy-driven metadata mandates. We will demonstrate
generalization of NARA metadata hierarchy.
Dr. Jim Balhoff visits School of Information and Library Science
November, 2008
On Monday, November 3, 2008, Dr. Jim Balhoff, a research programmer at NESCent (the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center) visited Jane Greenberg’s Metadata class to discuss ontologies and the NCBO BioPortal.
Open Archives Initiative (OAI): Situation and Prospects in Spain and Latin America
October, 2008
Metadata Research Center Visiting Scholar, Gema Bueno de la Fuente, announces the publication of Open Archives Initiative (OAI): Situation and Prospects in Spain and Latin America.
Bueno de la Fuente, Gema (coord.); Hernández Carrascal, Francisca; Rodríguez Mateos, David; Santiago Hernández, Tania; Gómez Dueñas, Laureano F. (2007) /La Iniciativa de Archivos Abiertos (OAI): situación y perspectivas en España y Latinoamérica/. Bogotá: Rojas Eberhard, xvi, 350 p. ISBN 978-958-9121-89-4.
HIVE Project Funded by IMLS
September, 2008
HIVE: Helping Interdisciplinary Vocabulary Engineering is funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Please also see the HIVE Project Page.
Dryad Project Receives Funding from the NSF
September, 2008
A Digital Repository for Preservation and Sharing of Data Underlying Published Works in Evolutionary Biology. Dryad, a collaboration between the MRC and the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent), is awarded $650999.
Metadata for Scientific Datasets Workshop at Dublin Core 2008
September, 2008
Metadata for Scientific Datasets (MeS) workshop will be held during the 2008 International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications in Berlin.
Press Release 2008
August, 2008
Fourteen students from the Triangle community participated in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s first BotCamp on July 31 through August 2. BotCamp is part of BOT 2.0, an innovative program featuring a curriculum that weaves together four key themes – botany, environmental conservation, the use of social technologies and metadata literacy. (More information about the program can be found here.)
Memex Project Featured in Endeavors
Winter, 2007
The Memex Project, including comments from Jane Greenberg, John Oberlin, and Dan Reed, are described in “You: Film at Eleven”, an article by Laura Granfortuna in the Winter 2007 issue of Endeavors: Research and Creative Activity.
Knitting the Semantic Web
Jane Greenberg and Eva Méndez, Guest Editors.
Monograph will also be simultaneously published as Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 43(3/4): http://www.catalogingandclassificationquarterly.com/ccq43nr3-4.html
Workshop sponsored by NESCent and the Metadata Research Center
May 2007
A DRIADE project workshop to help identify the way forward for long-term preservation and sharing for the datasets that underly published works in evolutionary biology.
Article in Chronicle of Higher Education Cites Dr. Greenberg
February, 2007 Scott Carlson quotes Jane Greenberg in his article: On The Record, All the Time: Researchers Digitally Capture the Daily Flow of Life. Should They?, a look at lifelogging tools and research in the Chronicle of Higher Education, 53(23): A30.
SILS names Dr. Jane Greenberg as McColl Professor
December 2006
Dr. Greenberg will start her two-year McColl Term Professorship in July 2007.
Digital Repository of Information and Data for Evolution (DRIADE)
November, 2006
A joint project of NESCent and the UNC Metadata Research Center “to establish a repository for heterogeneous digital datasets in the field of evolutionary biology in order to ensure long-term preservation and promote resource discovery and reuse.”
Metadata Tools for Digital Resource Repositories Workshop at JCDL 2006
Jun 15, 2006
Metadata Tools for Digital Resource Repositories Workshop at JCDL 2006 in Chapel Hill, NC, USA. The workshop was an official DCMI Tools Working Group event. The one day workshop facilitated dialog among people interested in metadata tools–including tool developers, companies, and users.
MRC Named Promising Digital Preservation Initiative
August 15, 2005
The MRC has been named one of the “Ten Promising Digital Preservation Initiatives” by RLG:
This [MRC] is not a digital preservation research project, per se, but metadata is a cost center for all digital projects, including digital preservation. Research such as this can make long-term access more feasible by reducing metadata costs while improving metadata quality. Note the publications list on the website. The model for this research center is one that should be replicated to focus on other core research issues.
Metadata Research Center Receives $25,000 gift
March 17, 2005 [original release]
The School of Information and Library Science has received a $25,000 gift from Sarah and Claude Snow to establish the Metadata Research Center (MRC). The gift will help continue current research activities and fund the official launch of the center, set for spring 2006.
Automatic Metadata Generation Explored With New Grant
December 9, 2003 [original release]
Dr. Jane Greenberg, a SILS assistant professor, has received a $10,000 contract from the Library of Congress to investigate recommended functionalities for automatic metadata generation applications.
The research is part of the Library’s Bibliographic Control Action Plan to lead libraries in the new millennium. The project is a natural extension of Greenberg’s Metadata Generation Research project that is discovering the best ways to catalog the Web’s vast collection of online resources “so people can find the best information in the most expedient manner.”
This fall, Greenberg served as Program Co-chair for the Dublin Core 2003 Conference held in Seattle, and is Co-editor of the Conference proceedings. It was the first time that the full international conference program was held in the United States, bringing together metadata researchers, practitioners, system implementers and administrators. In October, Greenberg gave a presentation on her metadata research to launch the Distinguished Lecturer Series at the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies and the University Library, University of British Columbia, Canada.
Grant to Aid Metadata Research Project
March 6, 2003 [original release]
Jane Greenberg, an assistant professor at UNC-CH’s School of Information and Library Science (SILS), has received a $4,000 grant for a research project titled “Scalable, Human-Centered Search: Improving Information Retrieval Using Author-Generated Metadata.” The grant is funded by UNC’s Small Grant Research Program and will be used over the next two years.
The newly funded research is a component of the larger Metadata Generation Research (MGR) project, which is led by Greenberg and conducted in collaboration with the National Institute of Environmental Sciences (http://www.ils.unc.edu/~janeg/mgr). Abe Crystal, a SILS doctoral student who worked on the grant application, will also be working on this newly funded part of the project.
“The funding will allow us to build and test a search tool showing how metadata can assist in the retrieval of Web pages,” said Greenberg. “This is a very important facet of the project, one that we have been wanting to develop and research.
The research will test how author-generated metadata, or data about data, can be optimized to support resource discovery. Other project goals include developing protocols for collaboration between resource authors and metadata professionals during the metadata generation process and studying the integration of collaborative human metadata generation processes and automatic generation processes.
OCLC Grant Will Allow Greenberg To Continue Metadata Research at NIEHS
January 30, 2002 [original release]
Dr. Jane Greenberg, an assistant professor at UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Information and Library Science (SILS), has received a $10,000 grant for her research on metadata.
The Online Computing Library Center (OCLC), with assistance from the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE), awarded funding for Greenberg’s proposal “Optimizing Metadata Creation: A Model for Integrating Human and Automatic Processes.”
Commonly defined as “data about data,” metadata facilitates the organization and access of information resources. It is of special significance to scientific organizations which are turning with increased frequency to the World Wide Web for disseminating and accessing information.
Greenberg said the OCLC grant allows her to continue her research examining scientists creating metadata at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) in Research Triangle Park. An earlier phase of her research, “Metadata Generation for Web Resources,” was funded in July 2000 by Microsoft Corporation.
“I’m very excited to receive this grant because it allows me to examine another facet of metadata generation,” Greenberg said. “I am also pleased to be able to continue working with the NIEHS metadata team headed by [NIEHS Library Director] Dav Robertson, NIEHS library staff and several SILS student interns.”
The OCLC grant will allow Greenberg to examine the quality of data created by NIEHS scientists, professional catalogers and automatic processes. The goal of the research, she said, is to develop a model to facilitate the most efficient means of metadata production by integrating human and automatic processes.
Founded in 1967 by university presidents to share library resources and reduce library costs, OCLC introduced an online shared cataloging system for libraries in 1971 that today is used by libraries around the world. The mission of ALISE is to promote excellence in research, teaching and service for library and information science education. The NIEHS is one of 25 institutes and centers of the National Institutes of Health.