Category Archives: metadata

Cataloguing with SUNCAT webinar

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We held a “Cataloguing with SUNCAT” webinar at the start of December with around 70 participants from a wide range of UK Higher Education, Further Education, government, NHS and specialist research institutions.

The webinar explained how data is handled in SUNCAT and how libraries benefit from it as a comprehensive source of quality bibliographic data, incorporating a free record downloading service. The session included information on:

  • How easy it is to contribute to SUNCAT
  • How data is sent to SUNCAT from our Contributing Libraries
  • How we deal with standards, e.g. AACR2 & RDA
  • What normalisation occurs and why
  • How SUNCAT can make your cataloguing workflow more efficient
  • Using the free MARC record downloading service

Questions covered bibliographic and holdings details around contributing data to SUNCAT; e-journal interlending; how records can be downloaded into local Library Management Systems; configuring the Z39.50 search results and how the Z39.50 downloading service might be improved.

More details about the webinar including the slides, Q&A and a recording of the session are available at http://www.suncat.ac.uk/news/presentations.html

Please contact the EDINA helpdesk, edina@ed.ac.uk, if you have any questions about issues raised in the webinar.

metadata & geodoc – all you need to know in 6 mins

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Metadata Tony – pic courtesy of RepoFringe

If you use or create spatial data then you should know how important metadata that describes your data is.  How many times have you received a dataset from a colleague or downloaded it from the internet only to be left wondering what it actually represents, how it was collected and if it is both complete and fit for purpose?

Well metadata is important and geodoc is a service that helps users create metadata for spatial datasets by explaining fields in plain english.  If you want to find out more about metadata and geodoc then you should watch this short video of a pecha kucha presentation given by EDINA’s resident metadata guru Tony Mathys.  All you need to know about metadata and geodoc in 6 mins. Rock on Tony.

Note – the video is 50 mins long, but Tony is first up.

Click here to view the embedded video.

 

Map Library becomes digital……

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Last week at IGES we had a rebirth of the map library as it became digital. This probably sounds more dramatic than it was.  What we did was to create a new drive on the public network for IGES staff and students   with a structured directory and put on some spatial data that relates to the Dyfi Biosphere. We also  highlighted  a few Web Map Services that you can access and invited some staff along to talk about using the area and how to create metadata through Geodoc.  There is also an  open invitation to staff and students to store any spatial data they want to make available to others on the drive as long as they also give it a metadata file to keep it company.

Really none of that had to happen in the map library but I think that the physical space it provides is more important than you might think. Now we have a place that encourages access to data  and metadata creation. This together with a map librarian who will help people through the use of the resources like Geodoc, makes it a place for spatial data management and access. The walls have posters espousing data sources, Gogeo and metadata creation and IGES has taken a step towards changing its culture of data management.

I like to think of the map library as a locus of good practice that will spread  the message of spatial data management.