Building interoperable Canadian architecture collections: initial metadata assessment

The purpose of this research is to assess the current descriptions of architecture collections housed at the McGill University Library in preparation for building an interoperable metadata and search interface for Canadian architecture collections.

The names and frequencies of tables and fields of 11 architecture databases were analyzed and summarized into the most commonly used groups. In addition, typologies of buildings by purpose of construction were presented as subject headings.

Current metadata schemes are diverse and heterogeneous across the 11 databases.

This study is at the pilot stage and is limited to Canadian architecture collections at McGill University. The observations provide insights into metadata normalization that can be used as a basis for building architecture collections or image collections.

This is the first metadata assessment of architecture collections for the purpose of building a single uniform access.