From Uncontrolled Keywords to FAST? Attempting Metadata Reconciliation for a Canadian Research Data Aggregator

Abstract

Abstract How aggregators reconcile repositories’ user-supplied subject keywords is a growing challenge in the metadata profession. While aggregators allow users to search across multiple databases to find information, the search capability is only as good as the supplied metadata. This paper is a case study of a project to reconcile harvested metadata keywords within a research data discovery service. The Federated Research Data Repository (FRDR) Discovery Service is a national, bilingual platform for discovering Canadian research data that harvests metadata from over 90 repositories. This paper outlines the work of a cross-Canada, volunteer group of experts who attempted to develop a semi-automated workflow to map the FRDR subject keywords to Faceted Application of Subject Terminology (FAST) to improve discoverability. The authors, who were members of the working group, discuss why the project failed, the problems encountered, and their thoughts on the future of automated metadata reconciliation.