Collection metadata solutions for digital library applications

Within a digital library, collections may range from an ad hoc set of objec ts that serve a temporary purpose to established library collections intend ed to persist through time. The objects in these collections vary widely, f rom library and data center holdings to pointers to real-world objects, suc h as geographic places, and the various metadata schemas that describe them . The key to integrated use of such a variety of collections in a digital l ibrary is collection metadata that represents the inherent and contextual c haracteristics of a collection. The Alexandria Digital Library (ADL) Projec t has designed and implemented collection metadata for several purposes: in XML form, the collection metadata "registers" the collection with the user interface client; in HTML form, it is used for user documentation; eventua lly, it will be used to describe the collection to network search agents; a nd it is used for internal collection management, including mapping the obj ect metadata attributes to the common search parameters of the system.