Metadata: Not Your Average Toothbrush

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

To paraphrase Dr. Jane Greenberg, a metadata standard is like a toothbrush; everybody agrees we should use them, but nobody wants to use anybody else's.

Through the years, archivists and librarians have discussed the possibility of developing an oral history specific metadata standard that could assist the oral history community. In 2010, Nancy MacKay formally brought this idea to the Oral History Association, and others since then have collaborated to continue the conversation and conduct research. In 2014 a Metadata Task Force was born out of that year’s archives interest group meeting.

In this roundtable panel, members of the Metadata Task Force will discuss the context for their mission, findings and work to date, and future plans. The group’s primary goal is to coordinate the development of an oral history specific metadata schema and content standard, and to foster collaboration around the widespread adoption of such a standard as a best practice across disciplines. Oral history specific metadata will: improve and increase access and use of existing oral history collections; encourage collaboration across oral history repositories and programs; illuminate meaningful connections between individual oral histories as well as oral history collections that span institutions; provide guidance to new oral historians and others who participate in the creation, preservation, and/or dissemination of interviews; and help to bridge gaps between the creation, curation, and dissemination stages of oral history. The Metadata Task Force is part of OHA but will include representatives and liaisons from other associations and partner communities.

Sub Unit

• OHA Annual Meeting

Panelists

• Lauren Kata, Archives of the Episcopal Church

• Steven Sielaff, Baylor University

• Cyns Nelson, Maria Rogers Oral History Program

Chair

• Jaycie Vos, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill