Improved Metadata Creation Interface
Our current metadata creation interface goes by the moniker “Hades.” It was built somewhat iteratively, and as such functions in a less-than-user-friendly way. It has worked pretty well for our small, fairly close-knit team, but we always knew it needed improvement. As our user-base grows it is becoming imperative that we simplify it to make learning its use easier, as well as speeding actual production.
Currently we are working on four areas to streamline the work:
- Simplifying searching under Descriptive Metadata: We would like to have a keyword-type search that will search across any or all of the data elements in the records. The staff member will be able to narrow the search by selecting various elements, and if none a chosen, all the elements will be searched.
- Save time when creating Names and Subjects: When a correctly-formed Name or Subject is entered a transformation will have the task of creating the Display Name or Subject, saving a lot of typing. We are also looking at the possibility of changing the format for Name and Subject to make copying from the LC authorities website easier, saving editing and improving accuracy.
- Make visible the entire hierarchy of a collection: Right now, when a staff member is looking at a record, only a slice of the hierarchy is actually visible. A click-able tree-like hierarchy will be made available for each item to make it easier to grasp the entire structure of a collection and judge its accuracy and to more easily navigate through parts of the hierarchy.
- Eliminate needless navigation through menus: The first area that will be streamlined is creating and editing image_ids, which currently requires navigating all over the menus in the interface. We will simply insert some buttons at the appropriate levels in the hierarchy to go directly to image_id creation and repair.
Other areas that are priorities are rationalizing and expanding reports and creating statistical tools.
Anyone using HADES who has suggestions for improvement (or just something that has been bugging the heck out of you) should drop a line to Kris Kelly and Janet Murray. If it is bugging you, it is probably bugging someone else, so don’t be shy.
In the meantime, a rough guide to our current cataloging system has been drawn up. It is a work in progress and will grow over time, but the first draft has been posted here: