2016-04 Yale RDF Conference Calls

In March 2016 Yale charged a small working group with making a recommendation for Yale to either move descriptive metadata into RDF or maintain the current XML setup when we migrate to Fedora 4 later this calendar year. Our process was to setup several conference calls with peer institutions at varying stages of Fedora 4 migration, from planning to completion. We were mostly interested in the strategies taken for RDF conversions but learned much more along the way. As part of this process we also wanted to record these conference calls and make them available to the community.

We kicked off the series with a conference call including David Wilcox (unfortunately this was not recorded). The purpose of this meeting was to introduce the working group to the subject of RDF with Fedora 4. It was an excellent start since many members of the working group did not have a comprehensive understanding of RDF in Fedora 4.

It should be noted that the decision of this group only relates to RDF for descriptive metadata and not RDF for structural or other types of metadata. In these other cases, we will be using RDF to the fullest extent possible.

The working group concluded our work with a summary recommendation on May 16, 2016. The document itself is not public but the group outlined the three obvious approaches we will share: 1- do not use RDF and stick with XML, 2- still use XML but include some RDF and 3- Complete RDF adoption. The group did recommend option 3 but there is much to consider when it comes to staffing to achieve success.

Members of the working group included:

- Co-Chair Kevin Glick (Head of Digital Information Systems; Manuscripts & Archives)

- Co-Chair Mike Friscia (Manager, Digital Library Programming, Library Information Technology)

- Lisa Conathan (Head of Digital Services Unit; Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)

- Ellen Cordes (Head of Technical Services; Lewis Walpole Library)

- Youn Noh (Digital Information Research Specialist; Metadata Services)

- Mark Custer (Archivist and Metadata Coordinator; Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)

- Sarah Coe (Visual Resources Support Specialist; Metadata Services)

Here is a list of the conference recordings and associated materials.
(participants include the above list of committee members)