Repository Tools Taster Day

Today the Streamline project finally got to show off the completed metadata prototype to non-project members. As part of a joint taster session with the Repository and PERsONA projects, we invited members of Leeds Met staff to enjoy a presentation and get hands on with various tools. Over the course of the day various groups were entertained by Nick’s presentation and his amazement at having got twenty odd fans on his Leeds Met Facebook group. Just goes to show the power of social networking.

The majority of people were interested in getting a look inside the repository. I got the impression that at first they thought we were designing the interface to Interlibrary. I mentioned this to John who suggested that we need to devise a clear map of how all these applications and interfaces work and which bits are being developed.

It was a little difficult to get people involved with the metadata tool unless I was there to show them around. The instruction sheet I had put together was a bit long winded given the time people had to look at each of the tools available. Meg, promoter of the eCat application at the start of this project, had a go with it. She seemed suitably impressed, both by the application and how we had incorporated the suggestions she had made when discussing the difficulties with eCat.

Others were impressed with the keyword generation process and interested in the method of text extraction we had used. Generally the response I got from those that tried out the prototype was good. I was unsure, other than Meg, whether the participants all had had previous metadata creation experience, although two were producing learning objects. I think this tool needs to be tested by individuals whose current workflow includes metadata creation rather than those who are new to the experience.

So far no one has added any comments to the blog John has set up for repository tool evaluation. So I can’t comment on that