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An Emergent Theory of Digital Library Metadata is a reaction to the current digital library landscape that is being challenged with growing online collections and changing user expectations. The theory provides the conceptual underpinnings for a new approach which moves away from expert defined standardised metadata to a user driven approach with users as metadata co-creators. Moving away from definitive, authoritative, metadata to a system that reflects the diversity of users´ terminologies, it changes the current focus on metadata simplicity and efficiency to one of metadata enriching, which is a continuous and evolving process of data linking. From predefined description to information conceptualised, contextualised and filtered at the point of delivery. By presenting this shift, this book provides a coherent structure in which future technological developments can be considered.

Metadata is valuable when continuously enriched by experts and users
Metadata enriching results from ubiquitous linkin
Metadata is a resource that should be linked openly
The power of metadata is unlocked when enriched metadata is filtered for users individually An Emergent Theory of Digital Library Metadata is a reaction to the current digital library landscape that is being challenged with growing online collections and changing user expectations. The theory provides the conceptual underpinnings for a new approach which moves away from expert defined standardised metadata to a user driven approach with users as metadata co-creators. Moving away from definitive, authoritative, metadata to a system that reflects the diversity of users´ terminologies, it changes the current focus on metadata simplicity and efficiency to one of metadata enriching, which is a continuous and evolving process of data linking. From predefined description to information conceptualised, contextualised and filtered at the point of delivery. By presenting this shift, this book provides a coherent structure in which future technological developments can be considered.

Metadata is valuable when continuously enriched by experts and users
Metadata enriching results from ubiquitous linkin
Metadata is a resource that should be linked openly
The power of metadata is unlocked when enriched metadata is filtered for users individually

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Chapter One: Overview of Standards-based Metadata Approaches
Chapter Two: Changing Users´ Needs
Chapter Three: The Web 2.0 Paradigm and the Emergence of Socially-Constructed Metadata Approaches
Chapter Four: The Emergence of Socially-Constructed Metadata Approaches
Chapter Five: The Principle of Metadata Enriching
Chapter Six: The Principle of Metadata Linking
Chapter Seven: The Principle of Metadata Openness
Chapter Eight: The Principle of Metadata Filtering
Chapter Nine: The Emergence of a Theory of Metadata Enriching and Filtering
Chapter Ten: Implications of the Emergent Theory of Metadata Enriching and Filtering
Conclusion and Future Research

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"Alemu and Stevens´ main objective is to state a case for library systems that support the creation and use of socially constructed metadata as a diverse and contemporary addition to expert-created metadata." --LRTS

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