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MIT Libraries, Metadata

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Services 

A Business and Marketing Plan for a Successful Operation

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• Helping visitors find their way through digital libraries.
  • Descriptive metadata is information used to search the catalog of digital objects. Information describing the subject matter of objects, their creators and nature is captured to improve visitors' ability to discover the resources they require.
• Managing the publication of content
  • Operational metadata carries instructions for the organization and presentation of digital objects, and their relation to other resources. Technical information required to access and operate objects is captured to ensure the smooth functioning of the electronic environment.
• Archiving content
  • Preservation metadata ensures the integrity and reuse of electronic resources over time. Technical information is captured to secure the validity of objects and to plan their migration through import/export to long-term repositories and other content management systems where they may be included in future digital objects and repositories.
• Managing access to the collections
  • Rights metadata manages access to the objects. Information describing the legal right to publish and view the objects is captured in compliance with the U.S. and international copyright laws.
• Administering electronic publication projects
  • Administrative metadata captures information related to the effort required to prepare and publish electronic resources. Information related to organizing workflow and communicating responsibilities, objectives and schedules is captured to create an effective process for sharing these resources with the world.
    

Mission Statements

MIT

The mission of MIT is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

The Institute is committed to generating, disseminating, and preserving knowledge, and to working with others to bring this knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges. MIT is dedicated to providing its students with an education that combines rigorous academic study and the excitement of discovery with the support and intellectual stimulation of a diverse campus community. We seek to develop in each member of the MIT community the ability and passion to work wisely, creatively, and effectively for the betterment of humankind.

MIT Libraries

The mission of the MIT libraries is to create and sustain an intuitive, trusted information environment that enables learning and the advancement of knowledge at MIT. We are committed to developing strategies and systems that promote discovery and facilitate worldwide scholarly communication.

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In accomplishing this mission Metadata Services supports the academic and research missions of MIT and the MIT Libraries.  Metadata Services is MIT's first, best resource for metadata for digital production projects.

Objectives

Objectives of this Business Plan

1           To provide a written guide for starting and growing this unit of the MIT Libraries

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3           To provide a structure for pricing the products and services of the unit

Objectives of the Unit
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1. Leadership.  To build communities of practice around the best use of metadata for sharing knowledge and the organized use of information resources in education.

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1. Cost Recovery.  To generate sufficient revenue to sustain the existence of the unit within the MIT Libraries, to provide the resources needed to contribute to the educational objectives of the MIT Libraries and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
   

Description of Metadata Services

Introduction

The MIT Libraries provide cataloging and metadata services for collections that are owned or leased by the Libraries as resources for the Institute’s faculty, students and researchers with general funding from the Institute.  In addition to supporting MIT Libraries initiatives, Metadata Services provides a fee-based service for the MIT community on the basis of requests from faculty, students or researchers who are building or maintaining collections outside of the Libraries’ auspices.  In the case of DSpace, communities are considered the “owners” of the various collections, and therefore responsible for providing metadata, whether themselves or through the Libraries’ fee-based service.

Metadata Services Offers:

• Consultation and project planning.
• Development and implementation of metadata schemes and standards.
• Creation of best practices for metadata creation and use.
• User interaction design.
• Instruction programs that teach the best practices for metadata creation and use.
• Expert, cost-effective production services.
  

These offerings are organized into four work areas.

Consulting

• User needs and functionality assessment
• Metadata schema evaluation and recommendation (IEEE LOM, DC, VRA, EAD, FDGC, etc.)
• Interoperability assessment
• Re-use, repurposing, and development recommendation
• Value space definition
• Vocabulary recommendation and development
• Workflow planning
  

Documentation

• Data and Conceptual Models
• User interaction definitions
• XML Bindings
• Best Practice Recommendations
• Metadata Authoring Manuals
  

Training

• Introduction to metadata concepts
• Metadata application instruction
• Metadata trainer preparation
  

Metadata Application

• Metadata generation and editing in a variety of environments
• Instantiation of records and objects in repositories
• Standardization of forms of names and organizations (Authority Control)
• Indexing and subject access
  

Market Analysis

Audiences

There are six organizationally distinct audiences.

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• MIT Libraries
• OpenCourseWare
• DSpace
• MIT Libraries, Document Services
  

Market Growth

Increasingly MIT departments, laboratories, and centers are developing or planning digital production projects.  Both OpenCourseWare and DSpace are large and growing MIT projects that depend on and benefit from metadata services.  In addition, many departments, labs and centers are developing digital products to document their research, often through grant funding.  These projects also will require metadata applications.

Metadata Services is uniquely positioned and organized to provide assistance to digital production projects of both the MIT Libraries and MIT community-at-large.  In addition, it is able to assist projects from other non-profit, educational institutions.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Expertise:  Employs trained staff in metadata schemes and standards (e.g., LOM, DC, FGDC, MARC, VRA CORE, XML, METS). 

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Positioning:  Working with the MIT Libraries and major educational technology initiatives enables Metadata Services to recommend standards that improve interoperability and reduce the cost of implementing metadata systems. 

Threats

Fiscal climate:  The MIT economic environment is prone to cycles of growth and retraction.  Sustaining project work through a lean economic environment poses a significant challenge.

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Lack of awareness:  Potential clients do not recognize the necessity of standardized metadata.  Investment in educational efforts is required to introduce the MIT community to the power of metadata for digital production projects.

Competition

Do-it-yourself:  Primary competitors are potential clients and partners that decide to provide either their own solution or not create metadata.

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Automatic indexing services:  Google and Yahoo are actively pursuing access to what is colloquially called the “deep web,” the large databases of scholarly research and publishing.  They are attempting to leverage their full text indexing and analysis to provide search and discovery for digital production projects.  As these services have very wide brand recognition and increasing market share, they are potential long-term competitors or partners.

Keys to Success

New strategic partners:  Continue to pursue partnerships with major educational technology initiatives at MIT.  These initiatives offer publicity, marketing and educational opportunities while securing a steady and major source of funding.

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Leveraging success.  Build upon success with major partners to create further opportunities.  Associate Metadata Services with the success of these projects through branding, coordinated communication efforts, and publication of papers and presentations.

Marketing

The purpose of this proposal is to identify and plan to acquire those service opportunities that allow Metadata Services to contribute to the educational mission of MIT and the MIT Libraries while recovering its expenses.

Metadata Services directly supports the Institute’s and the Libraries’ mission of knowledge advancement by using its marketing campaign to raise the level of awareness in the MIT community concerning the value and importance of metadata application for digital production projects.

Strategies

The first strategy is to affirm and establish relationships with MIT content management systems (OpenCourseWare, DSpace, Metamedia, and SAKAI), securing a continual source of application projects.

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The third is to engage in building an explicit community of practice.  By establishing a history of providing effective assistance and publishing the results, Metadata Services raises the profile of metadata concerns for digital production projects and secures clients’ confidence in its work.

Message

The Libraries are uniquely positioned to provide metadata services to the MIT community.  No other organization brings as many years of experience serving the MIT community or comparable expertise in metadata standards and use.

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The experts at Metadata Services can help digital production projects realize the full value of their educational resources through effective use of information organization via metadata.  The Unit helps projects employ complex metadata standards with expert efficiency, ensures interoperability with other MIT systems, and shortens production schedules.

Programs

Marketing programs distribute Metadata Services’ message and accomplish marketing strategies.

Library Partnerships

A major effort occurs in partnership with two other Libraries’ services: DSpace and Document Services.  As defined in the DSpace Business Plan, scanning (provided by Document Services) and Metadata Services will be offered as premium services of DSpace.  To a large degree, Metadata Services will be able to “piggyback” on contacts made by DSpace and Document Services.  Free initial consultations will include information about all three services.  Integrated, co-branded marketing products will be developed, including a web-page pointing to the separate web-sites of the three units, a Power-Point presentation, a brochure or information card, targeted news releases.

MIT Partnerships

Other marketing efforts involve collaboration with academic computing and educational technology support services.  Investigation and contact with these service groups will lead to the identification of potential clients.  An initial list of these organizations:

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• Presentations (ppt)
• Testimonials
  

Research Partnerships

This effort leverages the accomplishments of the other marketing programs to identify and communicate our services towards the Institute’s research initiatives, many of which are amassing large quantities of data.  As research projects move towards their information sharing phases, they require sophisticated metadata systems to organize their information and make it available in a way that is useful to fellow researchers and educators.

Services and Service Marketing

Pricing

Costs for metadata services are divided into two pools by deliverable.  Consulting Documentation and Training costs are reflective of the labor cost of the Metadata Specialist who will be responsible for that work.  Application fees reflect a blend of the labor costs for the Metadata Specialist and Production Assistant who will share responsibility for the project.  Application fees will be charged, whenever possible, by the item processed.  This involves two calculations, one to provide an estimate and another to charge for realized expenses.

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Charges to external customers will be adjusted in recognition of basic infrastructure contributions by MIT (e.g. space and utilities).  These additional charges for external customers also allow for the recovery of outside user income overhead as requested of the Libraries by the Institute.  Outside charges will be adjusted in the amount of 20% in addition to the base charges for internal MIT customers.

Consulting, Documentation and Training

The hourly rate for Consultation Documentation and Training is $70 per hour.  This figure incorporates labor costs (salaries, wages and benefits), library department overhead (staff salaries and operating expenses) and general library administrative overhead (staff salaries).

Application

The hourly rate for Application will fall within the range from $55-$70 per hour.  This figure incorporates labor costs (salaries, wages and benefits), library department overhead (staff salaries and operating expenses) and general library administrative overhead (staff salaries).

Application fees will be translated into costs per item processed by the simple method of tracking an average per item.  The minimum rate reflects work done entirely by the Metadata Production Assistant; the maximum rate reflects work done entirely by the Metadata Specialist.  This mechanism allows the Metadata Specialist to recover costs for consultation during application projects that require a minimum of this effort.  These billable hours will be added to the application total and divided by the number of items processed.

Contracting and Invoicing

Metadata Services will negotiate agreements with digital production projects in advance of performing work.  Work agreements will take the form of a letter of intent on the part of Metadata Services to complete a defined list of tasks and will include an estimate of the fees it will charge to complete the tasks.  These agreements will form the basis for any further renegotiations of services.  Renegotiation will require revision and re-documentation of the work agreement including adjustment to the cost of the services provided.  Metadata Services will send the client an invoice for services provided at the completion of work or on another agreed upon schedule.

Financial Plan

Break-even Analysis

To sustain current staffing levels and accomplish its mission, Metadata Services will need to bill approximately $145,000 on average per year.

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