Metadata Quality Benchmarks of ETDs in International Institutional Repositories: An Automated Appraisal

Abstract

Good metadata quality makes a record more discoverable, facilitating search and retrieval. In this study, three methods are used to determine the quality of metadata of Electronic Theses and Dissertations; these are - Marc Report Analysis of Metadata, Metadata Quality parameters suggested by data.europa.eu, and lastly, a java based pre-compiled program by Peter Király has been used in this study. This study provides a brief comparative account of Electronic Theses and Dissertation Metadata structure of Institutional Repositories and Libraries. The comparative analysis of each repository shows that the total number of the record count is much higher in the case of the libraries as it was downloaded using z39.50/ SRU client. In contrast, in the case of repositories, only four sets of data are harvested using OAI-PMH. The field 040$e=rda is absent throughout the records of the institutional repositories. However, the field is present in a few records of the library, i.e., the University of Colorado shows 930 occurrences out of 1000 records. The process of metadata quality analysis involves a combination of automated tools and human expertise, ensuring a comprehensive evaluation of metadata attributes and relationships.