The issue of ownership and access control has been a major problem, mainly due to the inactivity of collections in maintaining their metadata. Well-curated records directly from an authorized representative of an institution should remain the gold-standard for a record. I feel we should be aiming for a primary data source, which mean accepting data from third parties should not be accepted unless they can somehow be verified as an authoritative source.
Here are some ideas to encourage institutions to actively maintain their records…
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- Make the last updated date on the record prominent on the record and make it more prominent on inactive records.
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- Highlight missing data on the record.
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- Calculate and display a completeness score for the collection records.
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- Make it very easy for institutions to register and maintain their records.
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- Allow institutions to add promotional text/images so that they can take some pride in their record.