As the head of Bibliographic and Metadata Services (BAMS), I coordinate the metadata creation for the vast array of digital collections produced by the IUPUI University Library Center for Digital Scholarship. The involvement of catalogers in the process of metadata creation has brought an expertise in description to and enriched our digital collections. Additionally, this work has provided variety to the work of our catalogers and helped them to learn new skills that will take them into the future.
Among the collections BAMS has had the opportunity to work on are the Indianapolis Sanborn Map and Baist Atlas Collection; Camp Chesterfield Collection; Western Medicine in China, 1850-1950 Collection; electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) in IUPUI ScholarWorks; and the deposit of faculty articles in IUPUI ScholarWorks under the IUPUI Open Access Policy, just to name a few.
The metadata BAMS creates for these collections improves the ability of faculty, staff, students, and community members to access the items they contain. Our work ties to the mission of both University Library and IUPUI in a number of ways, including
- connecting users to the information they need from wherever they are;
- connecting to the curriculum through unique collections like Motorsports and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Collection;
- engaging the larger community through partnerships;
- enhancing the learning experiences of students by providing primary resources for their research; and
- transforming the way in which research is conducted by providing open access to the research output of our faculty and students.
I could go on and on about the benefits the Center for Digital Scholarship and the collections it creates bring to University Library and IUPUI. I'm proud that my team is able to take part and have a positive impact on the collections we offer