Digital repository at Nanyang Technological University : implementing a subject metadata scheme

Abstract

One information service that has emerged in libraries with the advancement of digital technologies is the online institutional repository. DR-NTU is the digital institutional repository jointly developed by NTU Library and the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, using open source software DSpace from MIT, to facilitate the capture, storage and preservation of the intellectual output of the NTU community.

Aside from using keywords and metadata elements such as title, author and date to search and browse the collections, the DR-NTU user interface is designed to also allow subject search and browse. This feature would provide value-added library services to the user for navigating information within the digital environment, allowing more precise subject search and browse by the use of controlled vocabulary. NTU Library’s Bibliographic Services Division assisted in developing a metadata scheme which would support these information searching and retrieval requirements. This paper provides an overview of the policies, procedures and relevant issues in creating, testing and implementing the DR-NTU subject taxonomy.