94

Book Reviews

Steven J. Miller. Metadata for Digital Col-
lections. New York: Neal Schuman Pub-
lishers, 2011. 343p. alk. paper, $80.00 
(ISBN 9781555707460). LC 2011-012594.

The world of cataloging and bibliographic 
data is entering a period of radical change. 
RDA (Resource Description and Access) 
is poised to replace the Anglo-American 
Cataloging Rules (AACR) as the standard 
by which bibliographic records are creat-
ed; spurred by this change, the Library of 
Congress has begun an initiative to design 
and implement a replacement for MARC, 
the scheme that has been used to encode 
bibliographic data since the beginning 
of computerized cataloging. Simultane-
ously, many librarians who have worked 
only as “traditional catalogers” are being 
asked to work with new metadata schema 
and digital collections, particularly in a 
time of decreased budgets that preclude 
hiring additional staff.

Steven J. Miller’s Metadata for Digital 
Collections addresses these changes in 
both providing explanation and ex-
amples of using non-MARC metadata 
to describe digital objects, in a practical, 
well-organized handbook. Miller does not 
assume that the reader has any previous 
experience creating metadata; rather, he 
presents a guide for all to the basics of the 
description of digital resources, including 
illustrative examples, links to the book’s 
companion Web site, and substantial lists 
of references, with a full bibliography and 
index at the end. The book is organized 
so that each chapter builds upon the 
previous, for an overview of the process; 
additionally, chapters on specific schema 
can serve as quick reference for metadata 
practitioners who need specific and im-
mediate guidance on each one. Miller 
presents three specific metadata schema in 
the book: Dublin Core, MODS, and VRA.

The first chapter introduces the reader 
to the basic concept of metadata creation, 
with an explanation that metadata, wheth-

er in traditional cataloging or 
new schema, is created with 
the aim of assisting the user 
in searching, navigating, and 
locating specific resources 
(a point that many who do 
not see the need for any 
metadata creation would do well to heed). 
Miller presents many examples of types 
of metadata, including the traditional 
catalog record, the data present in iTunes, 
the metadata present in a Microsoft Word 
document, and the metadata created spe-
cifically for a digital object in a collection. 
He continues by defining the digital col-
lection, with a brief explanation of how a 
digital collection is created; from there, he 
combines the two concepts presented in 
an overview of creating and documenting 
metadata for digital collections.

The next three chapters concern the 
Dublin Core metadata scheme. Chapter 
2 begins by discussing the general prin-
ciples of resource description behind all 
metadata schema and what is needed to 
create and maintain quality usable meta-
data, followed by a general introduction 
to Dublin Core. Chapters 3 and 4 continue 
to outline the metadata necessary for ade-
quate representation of an item, including 
resource identification and responsibility 
(such as title, creator, publication, and 
rights and restrictions) in chapter 3 and, in 
chapter 4, content and relationship (sub-
ject analysis) and carrier (the format of the 
item), in addition to providing examples 
of how these elements are encoded in a 
Dublin Core record. 

Chapters 5 and 6 provide non–schema-
specific information and instruction. 
Chapter 5 elaborates on the elements 
needed for quality metadata by discussing 
the philosophy behind and need for con-
trolled vocabulary, providing examples of 
established vocabularies and a brief guide 
to creating a new collection- and user-
specific controlled vocabulary. Chapter 



Book Reviews 95

6 provides a brief, simple explanation of 
XML-encoded metadata and the “build-
ing blocks” thereof as an introduction to 
learning to read XML-encoded metadata 
records in a number of metadata schema.

Chapters 7 and 8 return to overviews 
on specific metadata schema: chapter 7 
focuses on the construction and use of 
MODS (Metadata Object Description 
Schema); chapter 8 on VRA (Visual Re-
sources Association) Core. Both chapters, 
as with the preceding chapter on Dublin 
Core, provide an explanation of the 
structure of the scheme, examples of its 
use, illustrations of how it provides for 
usable metadata, and how it differs from 
the other schema described in the book. 

Metadata is made more useful when 
it can be exchanged among different 
systems with no loss of meaning and 
function; this exchange is made simpler 
when the practices of creating good meta-
data, as outlined in earlier chapters, are 
used. Chapter 9, dealing with metadata 
interoperability, shareability, and quality, 
discusses this in a general sense, with 
relation to a specific metadata-harvesting 
protocol, OAI-PMH (Open Archives Ini-
tiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting), 
and the trials and tribulations of mapping 
from one scheme to another.

Chapter 10 outlines how to design 
and document metadata schema, from 
the adapting of an existing scheme to 
local practices and needs to the creation 
of an original metadata scheme. In both 
cases, the importance of analyzing both 
the collection and the needs of its users 
is stressed, as well as the importance 
of documenting the practices used and 
developed. Miller gives “real-world” ex-
amples of general and collection-specific 
metadata profiles, as well as how specific 
schema can be designed in the commonly 
used CONTENTdm digital-content-
management software package.

Chapter 11 discusses one of the most 
important new directions in which 
metadata creation and dissemination is 
headed: linked data and the semantic 
Web. After a brief overview of the con-

cepts thereof, Miller goes on to illustrate 
how the metadata models discussed ear-
lier in the book can be adapted to linked 
data use. The chapter concludes with a 
section titled, “What does all of this have 
to do with me?” This section elaborates 
that, though it is unknown to what extent 
metadata communities will adapt these 
practices, they are a possible next step in 
the creation, maintenance, and interoper-
ability of metadata, similar to the move 
from card catalogs to MARC-based online 
catalogs; therefore, all metadata practi-
tioners should develop at least a basic 
familiarity with linked data.

Metadata for Digital Collections is an 
extremely useful book for everyone 
currently or potentially involved in the 
creation of metadata: those with little 
to no experience in using non-MARC 
metadata, who either need to do so now 
or who would simply like to remain cur-
rent with developments in the field; those 
who need a ready-reference work for a 
particular metadata scheme; and students 
of cataloging and metadata.—Deborah 
DeGeorge, University of Michigan.

Embedded Librarians: Moving Beyond 
One-Shot Instruction. Eds. Cassan-
dra Kvenild and Kaijsa Calkins. Chi-
cago: American Library Association, 
2011. 235p. alk. paper, $48.00 (ISBN 
9780838985878). LC2011-014802. 
Embedded Librarianship: Moving Beyond 

One-Shot Instruction provides a practical 
guide for embedding library instruction 
in a variety of disciplines, instructional 
delivery systems, departments, and 
academic institutions. Editors Cassandra 
Kvenild and Kaijsa Calkins, librarians 
at the University of Wyoming, have 
assembled sixteen chapters written by 
librarians embedded in different subject 
areas at every level of collegiate instruc-
tion. In their introduction, Kvenild and 
Calkins state that “by joining varied 
groups of patrons and assisting their 
research over the long haul, embedded 
librarians commit themselves to service 
in a very different way than they did in