Background: The scale and usage of electronic books (e-books) in academic
libraries has increased considerably in the last decade. The size of e-book packages
means it is unfeasible for titles to be individually catalogued; it is therefore common
practice to batch-load bibliographic records into Library Management Systems
(LMS). This, however, causes issues with discoverability because of the variable
quality of these records that are supplied by vendors.
Aims: The aim of this study is to explore the key influences, attitudes and processes
involving the quality management of the bibliographic metadata of e-books in UK
higher education libraries and how this relates to changes occurring in this sector.
Methods: This research takes a qualitative approach that is informed by
constructivism. In-depth interviews were undertaken with 31 participants from two
different academic library consortia within the UK and six of the e-book and metadata
vendors who supply them. The data from these was evaluated through thematic
analysis and situational analysis.
Findings: The findings in this research recognise a need for metadata staff to
expound the value of the work they do, the thesis explores how this could viably be
undertaken by applying the Value Scorecard, an adaption of the Balanced Scorecard
that measures the worth of different aspects of libraries. The findings also highlight
the differences between HE library consortia and how their size and attitudes towards
facilitation can influence the existence of communities of practice for metadata staff.
The findings offer a clearer perception of the tensions surrounding what is ‘good
enough’ in terms of metadata and how compromises may be met regarding this, by
programming LMS to triage records to a particular standard, such as essential fields
utilised in the template record created by the National Acquisitions Group and the
Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium. Automating the quality assurance of
e-book records in this way, means that metadata staff could adapt more to the
changing stewardship of collections by deploying their skills in other areas such as
special collections, scholarly communications and open access.
