The Dewey roadshow reached San Antonio this week, remember, as teachers, learners, and practitioners gathered for their annual review of the state of education for library and information science. The development of the Metadata Education and Research Information Center (MERIC) -- a web-based repository or "clearinghouse" for metadata education resources -- was the subject of yesterday's session organized by ALISE's special interest group on Technical Services. Sherry Vellucci (Rutgers University) summarized the events leading to the implementation of the MERIC prototype that is accessible here (with the title Metadata and Cataloging Education—Web Clearinghouse): the identification, at the Library of Congress's Conference on Bibliographic Control for the New Millennium (in 2000), of the need for training and support programs that would help new LIS professionals participate in the development of metadata standards for the bibliographic control of digital resources; the constitution in 2003 of the Task Force for Preparing Cataloging and Metadata Educators and Trainers, jointly run by ALISE and the ALA's Association for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS); and the publication in 2002-2003 of the report in which Ingrid Hsieh-Yee (Catholic University of America) reviewed the then-current state of metadata education and recommended (among other proposals) that a central clearinghouse should be established to facilitate access to standards and tools in the area. Ingrid herself talked about the different sets of core competencies required of all LIS students, of metadata catalogers, and of leaders of metadata projects; it's intended that the clearinghouse will provide support for learners' acquisition of core competencies at all levels of expertise. Anita Coleman (University of Arizona) then discussed the technical issues arising during the process of designing the MERIC prototype; Pat Lawton (University of Wisconsin–Madison) presented details of the collection policies and short- and long-term goals of the project; and Shawne Miksa (University of North Texas) spoke about plans for evaluation. A beta version of the clearinghouse will be available in summer 2006, with a full version scheduled for the fall.
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