Coffee is a good thought for this hour of the morning. You can count us in as well. Nancy, Bartek and I will be in contact off-list, and we look forward to this work. I think, as others here have said, that we're likely all wrestling with the same questions and this exchange will be quite beneficial. scott __________________________ C. Scott Pennington [log in to unmask] Matrix Michigan State University http://matrix.msu.edu > From: Nancy Hoebelheinrich <[log in to unmask]> > Reply-To: [log in to unmask] > Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 13:08:43 -0800 > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: [METS] fledgling METS Best Practise? > > Hi, Jerry, et al: > Seems like a very reasonable plan (although that shouldn't stop you from > having more coffee if you'd like, heavens!) I think it's a great idea to > reconnoiter offline to figure out what those of us who've spoken up about > needing guides are really thinking we need. At this stage, it may well be a > more advanced tutorial & "first" practices as opposed to "best" practices, > or a registry of planned uses for contact purposes, for instance. We could > bring the results of those discussions back to the list when we've got > something to suggest. I understand that Stanford has some facilities for > visual networking that I will explore to see whether the appointed > anointed? self destructive?) group could use that for an offline meeting. > I'll report back to the small group members unless they let me know they're > not interested or have a better idea, of course. Make sense? > Nancy Hoebelheinrich > > **************************************************** > Metadata Unit Coordinator, Cat Dept > 3rd Floor, Meyer Libr > Stanford Univ Librs/Acad Info Rsrcs > Stanford CA 94305-6004 > phone: 650.725.6843 fax: 650.725.1120 > [log in to unmask] > > -----Original Message----- > From: Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard > [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Jerome McDonough > Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2002 11:59 AM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: [METS] fledgling METS Best Practise? > > > At 09:14 AM 3/26/2002 -0500, you wrote: > >> I think we're working on parallel courses. At MATRIX, we've been >> investigating and implementing OAIS for about a year now. We're certainly >> planning on using METS in various Information Package roles, so we'd be > very >> interested in participating in the development of a METS Best Practices. > Our >> projects tend to be distributed across several countries, with partners of >> various backgrounds and training, and we would be both eager and pleased to >> share practices as they develop. We have a pressing need for such a guide > as >> well as an interest in helping to develop it. >> >> So I find myself echoing Nancy - I'll volunteer us to work with the >> community on developing a guide, but how do we go about coordinating a >> working group? > > I'm somewhat concerned that we don't get too far ahead of ourselves here. > I definitely agree that it would be a good thing for people in the community > to start exchanging information on local practices with regards to > implementing > METS, but we are still in a phase which I can only characterize as > experimentation > and R&D with regards to using METS for practical work. I think we don't > really > have enough experience with METS at this point to define what 'Best' > practices with > a capital 'B' might be. > > This is not to say that I think such a document is a bad idea; I just don't > see > us as quite ready to declare definitively what best practices are. As a > step > towards getting there, I think it would be an excellent idea for > institutions which > are using METS in their local systems and who are willing to provide some > documentation regarding local METS practices to write up a document > describing > their local practices and send it to Morgan for including on the METS > website. > When those documents are available for the community to review, I think > we can start looking at what people are doing similarly/differently and > start > making more informed recommendations about best practices. > > It might help if we're all documenting the same thing, however, so at the > risk of shamelessly abusing whatever miniscule amount of authority I > possess, I volunteer Guenter, Nancy, Scott, Bartek and Morgan to confer > together off-list on the question of 'What do you really want to know about > what other people are doing with METS?' and come back to the listserv > with suggestions for people drafting local practice guidelines for posting > on > the METS website. > > Does this sound like a reasonable plan? Or should I have had that > second cup of coffee this morning? > > > > Jerome McDonough > Digital Library Development Team Leader > Elmer Bobst Library, New York University > 70 Washington Square South, 8th Floor > New York, NY 10012 > [log in to unmask] > (212) 998-2425