How to use metadata-related features in Quartex to create discovery pathways
Digital archives are heavily dependent upon the scope and quality of metadata for their usability and searchability, but how do you leverage metadata effectively to create meaningful pathways for discovery?
The digital archive of the Sonoma County Library is a great example of the marriage of comprehensive metadata and technical functionality in Quartex to create effective and numerous pathways into its collections.
Relaunched in Quartex in 2020, the digital collections of Sonoma County Library focus largely on local history, genealogy and the regional wine industry and currently include around 50 individual collections containing 200,000 digitized assets.
Geoffrey Skinner, Cataloging and Metadata Supervising Librarian, recently joined us in a webinar to share his extensive experience of working with the metadata-related features in Quartex, and highlighted the five considerations that have been most critical in helping the Library’s Digital Collections team achieve ease of navigation and discovery in its digital archive.
Here's Geoffrey's first recommendation:
Create and apply faceted Controlled Vocabularies to facilitate browsing, filtering and discovery of like material
When devising a Controlled Vocabulary, Geoffrey recommends a faceted approach for subject headings over a coordinated string.
In using a string, we would only be able to create links to other records that had the exact string, rather than a broader grouping..." while "... the many facets we've created enable users to drill down to find just the materials they're interested in.
An example of this is Sonoma's numerous geographic Controlled Vocabulary fields, browsable via their Collections by Location page under the Explore menu.
Sonoma Collections by Location
Learn more
To hear more from Geoffrey and discover his other four top tips for configuring and leveraging your metadata, watch our on-demand webinar, 'How to use metadata-related features in Quartex to create discovery pathways.'
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