1. Thinking collectively : approaching collection-level description Collection Description Focus Workshop 1 Staff House, UMIST, Manchester 1 November 2001 Bridget Robinson & Pete Johnston UKOLN, University of Bath Bath, BA2 7AY UKOLN is supported by: Email cd-focus@ukoln.ac.uk URL http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/

2. Collection Description Focus Workshop 1, 1 Nov 2001 2 Thinking collectively Collection Description Focus Collections, collection description & collection-level description Thinking collectively

3. Collection Description Focus Workshop 1, 1 Nov 2001 3 Collection Description Focus Funded by –RSLP –JISC/DNER –British Library UKOLN proposal supported by: –HE Archives Hub, mda UKOLN experience of RSLP Collection Description Benefit from collaboration with –Interoperability Focus, CIMI (museums), Dublin Core Collection Description WG

4. Collection Description Focus Workshop 1, 1 Nov 2001 4 Collection Description Focus (2) Improve consistency, compatibility of approaches Point of contact, advice Gather information on existing practice –implementer experience –survey questionnaire –collaboration with CIMI –visits –RSLP, JISC 5/99, others Consensus-building –CD Forum

5. Collection Description Focus Workshop 1, 1 Nov 2001 5 Collection Description Focus (3) Disseminate good practice –workshops, briefing days –publications –briefing papers –articles –recommendations, guidelines Support implementation –tools –not major software development

6. Collection Description Focus Workshop 1, 1 Nov 2001 6 Collections, collection description & collection-level description Collection –“an aggregation of physical and/or digital items” Collection description –Heaney typology –unitary, hierarchic, analytic, indexing Collection-level description –functional granularity

7. Collection Description Focus Workshop 1, 1 Nov 2001 7 Collections, collection description & collection-level description (2) Collection-level description might –Disclose information about collections –Provide overview of otherwise uncatalogued items –Enable user to select collections to search on basis of summary description –Enable software agents to select collections to search on behalf of user –Support controlled searching of multiple collections

8. Collection Description Focus Workshop 1, 1 Nov 2001 8 Collections, collection description & collection-level description (3) (Slightly) different ideas of “collections” Different ways of talking about “collections” Different ways of defining “collections” Different ways of describing “collections” But possible to agree on common view…?

9. Collection Description Focus Workshop 1, 1 Nov 2001 9 Thinking collectively Approaches to collections –how defined? –why defined? Approaches to collection-level description –purpose of description? –content of description? Standards/schemas for collection-level description Differences? Similarities?

10. Collection Description Focus Workshop 1, 1 Nov 2001 10 Acknowledgements UKOLN is funded by Resource: the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the UK higher and further education funding councils, as well as by project funding from the JISC and the European Union. UKOLN also receives support from the University of Bath where it is based. http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/