What's New

What's New

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) presents talk on harvesting user-generated metadata

Join us for the fifth session of the seminar series, New Directions in Description, to hear Sharon Reeves, from Library and Archives Canada (LAC), speak on the Theses Canada Portal.

New Directions in Description: User-Generated Metadata for Harvested Theses

The national theses program was established at the National Library of Canada in 1965 before computers became ubiquitous in the home and workplace and the Internet was just a dream on the horizon. Its goal was, and continues to be, twofold: to facilitate access to theses and dissertations approved by Canadian universities and to preserve them in the National Library's (now Library and Archives Canada's) collection.

The rapid pace of technological change has had a major impact on scholarly communications in general and, more particularly, on theses and dissertations, which many universities around the world are starting to accept in electronic format.

In order to provide enhanced access to Canadian theses, Library and Archives Canada has started to harvest electronic theses from Canadian universities using the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). Graduate students supply the initial metadata at the time they submit the final versions of their theses. The metadata goes through a number of primarily automated conversions before finally ending up on AMICUS, LAC's online catalogue, in the form of MARC 21 bibliographic records.

This presentation will take a look at the metadata records at each stage of conversion and discuss the issues related to, and the benefits of, user-generated metadata.

Sharon Reeves is Manager of Theses Canada at LAC. She began her career in the Collections Development Branch of the National Library of Canada in 1980. From 1985 until 2001, she worked in the Bibliographic Access Directorate of the Acquisitions and Bibliographic Services Branch (ABSB), first as a cataloguer and then as a manager. After a short stint as ABSB Planning Coordinator, she became Manager of the Canadian Theses Service in June 2002 (the name of the theses program was changed to Theses Canada on April 1, 2003). Since coming to Theses Canada, her focus has been on the development of the Theses Canada Portal, which was launched in January 2004, and on developing the capacity to build a collection of electronic theses at LAC.

The presentation will be in English, with simultaneous translation, and will last approximately an hour. Questions will be taken in both languages after the presentation. This talk will be of interest to those in the library, archival, academic and information management communities.

When: Thursday, June 2, 2005, 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Where: Auditorium, 395 Wellington, Ottawa

Admission is free