Cross-domain Metadata Interoperability to Support Integrated Digital Service Environment

Xiaolin Zhang, National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Interoperable metadata for scientific data is important to ensure data sharing and cross-disciplinary integration of e-science services. Facing the convergence of e-science, e-learning, e-administration, and e-library/e-median, issues of interoperability become more critical when documents, scientific data, learning objects, e-government resources, and media objects are all being integrated and used interactively in research workflows across application domains. Metadata interoperability for scientific data is a requirement for federated search of scientific data sources as well as for incorporating functions such as data mining, composite process integration, collaboration negotiation and organization, and digital preservation.

Establishing metadata interoperability has long-term benefits for resource discovery and retrieval, especially in increasingly interdisciplinary science research. However, it is also a time-consuming and costly process and requires effort and support from the organization top and collaboration between librarians, computer scientists, and disciplinary experts. This presentation will first analyze the issues of metadata interoperability of scientific data across different disciplines and the challenges facing scientists in discovering and retrieving cross-domain data and information resources. Then the presentation will introduce ways for metadata interoperability suggested and tested in various fields. Approaches to establishing metadata interoperability include cross-walking, metadata registries, metadata switching, or metadata harvesting. While research has experimented with these interoperability approaches, there is no silver bullet for all. The presentation will try to address some of the issues involved in metadata interoperability for scientific data and explore strategies and solutions for these issues from a CODATA’s perspective.