Today is Michael Appleby's first meeting. Welcome, Michael. Michael is a systems programmer on the Web Team at Academic Media & Technology in ITS. Michael was one of the presenters at the Metadata forum we had in the spring.

The Integrated Access Council discussed the element set briefly at its June meeting, and two observations were made. First, the draft may be too tightly focused on the library to be helpful in reaching out to other units at Yale. Second, we may want to work with the museums to expand the scope of the draft.

Discussion of the tight library focus of the draft was brief. The metadata committee had asked the Element set task force to tighten the focus (narrow the scope) of an earlier draft to sharpen the guidelines and make them more usable for units within the library. Had the draft not been so tightly focused on library needs, the IAC may have asked for a sharper focus and stronger guidelines. There was little interest within the committee in altering the substance of the draft element set now. Swanekamp suggested that the title could be altered to drop "library" and Beacom suggested there may be other stylistic changes made in the text to lessen the repetition of "library" without altering the substance of the draft.

ACTION: Beacom to make minor changes in draft (title and text) to reflect the IAC interest in positioning the element set to be of interest and of use at Yale beyond the library.

Discussion of working with museum to expand the scope of the draft was extensive and broad-ranging. Raich wondered if the Yale University Art Gallery (Gallery) was prepared to digest the draft element set as is. With respect to explicit discussion of metadata, the current context within the Gallery, at least, is quite different from that within the library. Perhaps, an overview of metadata--what it is and why it matters--would prepare the ground for Gallery staff to consider the Yale Element Set and Guidelines and respond to it. The Yale Center for British Art (Center) would have its own, unique, perspective on metadata, as would the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University (Peabody).

The discussion shifted to a consideration of what we could or would have to do to fit the element set with the needs and interests of the Gallery, the Center, and the Peabody? A campaign of outreach, education, and relationship building may be needed to bring together information professionals, librarians, curators, faculty, administrators, and others. Such a campaign would include an overview of metadata, what it is and why it matters; may include face-to-face meetings among a variety of players; and needs to build on such existing work as the copying of 1,000 (1208) images and metadata from the Gallery's TMS system to the Library's Luna Insight tool, a comparison of the Yale Element Set with the Gallery's TMS "cookbook;" the development of a "case study" from the work of the Arts Library staff in deciding to alter their metadata approach and tool set for the Visual Resources Collection, and education staffer, IT personnel within the museums to develop ideas suitable for forums or other programming for Yale staff on the topic of access to cultural objects and their images at Yale.

ACTION: Beacom to send Raich updated text of Yale Element Set for use in metadata conversion by Gallery in 1000 images project.

Discussion of training started with need for primer for library staff on metadata and networked information environment. Beacom reported on conversation with Amy Benson of NELINET on day long training course on Emerging Metadata Trends. Usual cost $900 USD plus speaker expenses for 30 persons. We'd could use SML lecture hall (good for 60 or 70) or perhaps could use Law School Auditorium--better locale for all day training. Package could be tailored for Yale. Could we do this this summer?

ACTION: Beacom to send presentation table of contents and sample presentations to Metadata Committee members.

Kairiss remarked that ITS staff may need help with information management principles rather than a primer on metadata and Internet technologies. Beacom thought many in library could use the same. Rentfrow thought a liaison program with sub-sets of faculty (by discipline, sub-interest, etc.) would be useful approach to connecting information professionals and librarians to users (especially faculty and graduate students).

Other training ideas or needs were discussed, too. Our next meeting will focus on training and education needs relating to metadata at Yale.