Invited Panel: Between Standards and Practice
- Starts at
- Wed, Aug 5, 2026, 15:00 KST
- Finishes at
- Wed, Aug 5, 2026, 16:00 KST
- Venue
- International Conference Hall
Metadata in Practice: Community Constraints, Institutional Conditions, and Human-Centered Innovation
Metadata practice is shaped not only by standards and technologies, but by the communities, institutional cultures, and material conditions in which decisions are made. This interactive session brings together two complementary perspectives from the University of Kansas. The first presenter will examine community digital humanities projects developed with limited funding, technical infrastructure, and dedicated metadata expertise. These cases reveal how non-specialists navigate multilingual and contributor-supplied metadata, community priorities, and pragmatic compromise. The second presenter will consider the institutional conditions to optimize responsible metadata innovation. Drawing upon organizational transformation efforts, the presenter will examine how future-ready practices depend on curiosity, critical judgment, and willingness to experiment across traditional boundaries. Together, the presentations explore the space between formal standards and situated practice, where real-world constraints, values, expertise, and institutional choices shape what metadata becomes. Audience discussion will consider how standards communities and library leaders can support inventive, ethical metadata work across diverse organizational and community settings.
-
Brian Rosenblum
Director, International Strategies
University of Kansas Libraries
Brian Rosenblum is Director of International Strategies at the University of Kansas (KU) Libraries, where he provides strategic leadership for KU Libraries’ international partnerships, programs, and professional engagement. He also leads the Institute for Globally Engaged Librarianship (IGEL), which advances global collaboration and exchange through library-wide initiatives. He was the founding co-director of KU's Institute for Digital Research in the Humanities (2010–2025). His interests include digital humanities, scholarly communication, open access, and electronic publishing. -
Carol E. Smith
Dean of Libraries
University of Kansas
Carol E. Smith is Dean of Libraries at the University of Kansas in the United States, a role she has held since 2023. Before joining KU, she served as University Librarian at Colorado School of Mines (2016–2023) and Library Director of Adams State University (2012–2016) in Colorado and held a tenured faculty role at the University of Central Missouri (2006–2012). Her current areas of leadership focus include international library partnerships, fostering participatory leadership, and talent development.
Hosted by
