Description: This paper describes the design and development of a learning object repository for a new statewide higher education initiative. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board is funding the redesign of large undergraduate courses; the redesigned courses are intended to improve student learning, retention and outcomes. The learning object repository stores and provides access to content from these courses. Content has been decomposed into discrete learning object varying in levels of granularity. The paper provides details on the proof-of-concept implementation developed in Phase I of a two-phase project. Special attention is given to key aspects such as the levels of granularity, metadata, technology, and user testing. ssues that emerged in Phase I are informing all facets of the next iteration of the repository.

Description: This paper discusses open access. The notion of open access to scholarly information is not new. In recent years, however, it has taken on prominence within the broader context of scholarly work, communication, and publishing. This brief paper intends to highlight and clarify key aspects of open access to assist UNT's initial discussions of the utility of open access for UNT researchers and scholars.

Description: This paper discusses extraction and parsing of herbarium specimen data. Abstract: Herbaria around the world house millions of plant specimens; botanists and other researchers value these resources as ingredients in biodiversity research. Even when the specimen sheets are digitized and made available online, the critical information about the specimen stored on the sheet are not in a usable (i.e., machine-processible) form. This paper describes a current research and development project that is designing and testing high-throughput workflows that combine machine- and human-processes to extract and parse the specimen label data. The primary focus of the paper is the metadata needs for the workflow and the creation of the structured metadata records describing the plant specimen. In the project, the authors are exploring the use of the new Dublin Core Metadata Initiative framework for application profiles. First articulated as the Singapore Framework for Dublin Core Application Profiles in 2007, the use of this framework is in its infancy. The promises of this framework for maximum interoperability and for documenting the use of metadata for maximum reusability, and for supporting metadata applications that are in conformance with Web architectural principles provide the incentive to explore and add implementation experience regarding this new ...

Description: This paper discusses Z39.50 interoperability. Abstract: An operating assumption for the networked environment is that many different information systems need to interoperate for users to successfully discover and retrieve distributed resources. Meaningful interoperability is often elusive. In the library community, the Z39.50 standard protocol (ISO 23950/ANSI/NISO Z39.50) for information retrieval promised seamless and transparent networked access to library resources. Too often, the reality has not lived up to the promise. This paper discusses two efforts that offer solution paths to Z39.50 interoperability.

Description: This paper describes the MARC Content Designation Utilization Project, which is examining a very large set of metadata records as artifacts of the library cataloging enterprise. This is the first large-scale examination of descriptive metadata utilization. Presents an overview of study activities and suggests the study's significance to the broader use of metadata in digital libraries.