Very interesting question. I'm working on a metadata project for Cultural Heritage in Southeast Asia, which is multilingual.

@Efstratios, yes indeed, metadata quality is a very important point in the creation and application of metadata, see the provocative question (and answers) here

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_metadata_a_failed_concept

@Nikos, you might want to add "Data quality" to the tags of this question.

Hi there, I am currently working on an FP7 project (called PERICLES) that has to do with digital preservation (http://pericles-project.eu/).

Although I haven't specifically worked on metadata quality, it sounds very relevant to the notion of digital preservation.

If you think there may be room for collaboration, please drop me a line.

Very interesting question. I'm working on a metadata project for Cultural Heritage in Southeast Asia, which is multilingual.

@Efstratios, yes indeed, metadata quality is a very important point in the creation and application of metadata, see the provocative question (and answers) here

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_metadata_a_failed_concept

@Nikos, you might want to add "Data quality" to the tags of this question.

@Efstratios, yes indeed, metadata quality should come into the discussion since high quality metadata and metadata that are being revised and preserved, also allow the resources they describe to be accessible and reusable for a long period of time. I am also really interested to take a look at the costs involved. I already took a swing at measuring some costs involved in the metadata enrichment process in my thesis (http://www.slideshare.net/nikospala/metadata-quality-issues-in-learning-repositories) and this is also something that would be of interest. What you can also see in the attached presentation is an approach that was applied in three different federations of repositories to enhance metadata quality. It may also be of relevance to your project. If you do develop a repository for the Tate's collection that is mentioned, I would be interested to see how metadata are being developed in that context. I would also be interested to see the tools or documentation that you plan to develop which will help in the preservation of data. I also worked on some simple tools so it would be interesting to see how this can be taken to the next step. I see no Greek partner there, so I am guessing no events will take place in Greece, but in any case, I would be interested to keep in touch if there's anything that would be in line with my research! Thank you so much for the answer!

@ Michael

We also worked (as part of my Thesis as well), on the Natural Europe project which created a repository of 15.000 resources on cultural heritage and was also integrated in Europeana. You may get some more information here: http://www.natural-europe.eu/

What was interesting to me working with professionals from this domain in this project, was that they were really meticulous with metadata in comparison to domain experts, e.g. from the agricultural sector. We had lots of interesting discussions trying to profile the DC and the Darwin Core, as well as the ESE Schema, etc.

I really believe that the specificities of each domain are of paramount importance when we design metadata or try to apply metadata quality assurance mechanisms.

@Nikos

Thanks for your answer! Regarding the specific project I am involved in, indeed there has been a lot of work thus far in (semi)automatic metadata detection and extraction from the digital objects themselves. Although me and my institution (CERTH) have vast experience in metadata and semantic technologies in general, this task has been appointed to another equally experienced partner, so at this point I cannot offer you much insight into their approaches. Please stay tuned for upcoming deliverables from the project (we just entered the 2nd year of this 4-year project). However, at some point there might also emerge the need to work on metadata quality etc, so we will probably be in touch! :)

That's great! So we do have a Greek partner there! I did not notice this before ;-) Will be glad to hear more and will make sure to check out the public deliverables! Nice to meet you, even electronically!

@Nikos, regarding your experience with professionals and domain experts, would you say that without their help high quality metadata couldn't be achieved. Or in other words, what are the conditions according to your experience for metadata quality to be maximized? Sometimes too many cooks spoil the broth, so to say.

It's true that when you involve too many domain experts in the metadata design, you may get confused. But this only calls for a better communication channel between metadata designers/experts and domain experts. From my small experience, I think that high quality metadata for any given field with its particularities and needs, go hand in hand with domain expertise. These are the people that will contribute to the initial requirements of the metadata that will be used to describe their domain knowledge and I think it makes sense this way. Semantics is always critical as well, as metadata experts think of "creator" as the man behind an object but scientist may think "creator" as the God (not joking) and this is an actual example that shows how necessary it is to involve the domain experts in this, ensuring we are all on the same page.

Other things may play an important part in metadata quality, as the usability of the tools deployed for metadata annotation, controlling mechanisms on metadata, automated mechanisms, training material etc. but I think it all starts with metadata design, so domain experts are key there. Once you have your basis correct, then you get to the next steps.

@Nikos

Could you please point me to some introductory references to metadata quality? I am curious to see what metrics are used or generally how is this quality measured and compared.

Thanks a lot in advance.