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Trends in Archives Practice by the Society of American Archivists is a new, open-ended series of modules featuring brief, authoritative treatments — written and edited by top-level professionals — that fill significant gaps in archival literature. The goal of this modular approach is to build agile, user-centered resources. Each module will treat a discrete topic relating to the practical management of archives and manuscript collections in the digital age. The first three modules address archival arrangement and description and are designed to complement Kathleen D. Roe's book, ARRANGING AND DESCRIBING ARCHIVES AND MANUSCRIPTS. They include: MODULE 1 STANDARDS FOR ARCHIVAL DESCRIPTION Sibyl Schaefer and Janet M. Bunde Untangles the history of standards development and provides an overview of descriptive standards that an archives might wish to use. MODULE 2 PROCESSING DIGITAL RECORDS AND MANUSCRIPTS J. Gordon Daines III Builds on familiar terminology and models to show how any repository can take practical steps to process born-digital materials and to make them accessible to users. MODULE 3 DESIGNING DESCRIPTIVE AND ACCESS SYSTEMS Daniel A. Santamaria Implementation advice regarding the wide range of tools and software that support specific needs in arranging, describing, and providing access to analog and digital archival materials.

Book 2 in the Archival Fundamentals Series III

Since it was first published, LIS students and professionals everywhere have relied on Miller’s authoritative manual for clear instruction on the real-world practice of metadata design and creation. Now the author has given his text a top to bottom overhaul to bring it fully up to date, making it even easier for readers to acquire the knowledge and skills they need, whether they use the book on the job or in a classroom. By following this book’s guidance, with its inclusion of numerous practical examples that clarify common application issues and challenges, readers will

• learn about the concept of metadata and its functions for digital collections, why it’s essential to approach metadata specifically as data for machine processing, and how metadata can work in the rapidly developing Linked Data environment;
• know how to create high-quality resource descriptions using widely shared metadata standards, vocabularies, and elements commonly needed for digital collections;
• become thoroughly familiarized with Dublin Core (DC) through exploration of DCMI Metadata Terms, CONTENTdm best practices, and DC as Linked Data;
• discover what Linked Data is, how it is expressed in the Resource Description Framework (RDF), and how it works in relation to specific semantic models (typically called “ontologies”) such as BIBFRAME, comprised of properties and classes with  “domain” and “range” specifications;
• get to know the MODS and VRA Core metadata schemes, along with recent developments related to their use in a Linked Data setting;
• understand the nuts and bolts of designing and documenting a metadata scheme; and
• gain knowledge of vital metadata interoperability and quality issues, including how to identify and clean inconsistent, missing, and messy metadata using innovative tools such as OpenRefine.