Clarifying the Choices: E-Resource Metadata Strategies & Criteria

In a landscape of multiple metadata sources for E-Resource collections including the Primo Central Index, Alma’s Central KnowledgeBase, OCLC WorldShare Collection Manager, vendor record sets, locally curated metadata, and traditional title-by-title cataloging, how do technical services staff determine which source of metadata is most appropriate to use for a newly acquired collection? Considerations beyond simply the fullness and quality of the metadata include the type of collection metadata available, type of institutional acquisition (trial, subscription, or purchase), stability of publishers and/or platforms, the availability of staff time and resources, and which metadata is most critical for retrieval and access. This presentation provides an analysis of these metadata sources as well as discussing the ‘mix and match’ rationale used by the University of Washington in identifying the best sources for metadata to represent both E-Books and E-Journal collections in the library discovery system