2025-07-22

Moderator(s): Annamarie Klose (Ohio State University)

Notetaker: Emma Beck (University of Louisville)

Attendees:

Emma Beck - she/her - University of Louisville
Annamarie Klose, she/her/hers - Ohio State University
Margaret Kibi – she/her – University of California, Santa Barbara
Benjamin Riesenberg - they/them - U. of Oregon
Nic Don Stanton-Roark - he/him - PALNI
Sudha Anand -she/her - Indiana University
Sarah Cogley -she/her - University at Buffalo
Christine Peterson - she/her - Amigos Library Services
Nick Steinwachs - he/him - Notch8
Sarah Proctor - she/her - Notch8
Rob Kaufman - he/him - Notch8

Agenda:

Samvera community updates
- Developer training
- Samvera Connect - coming together very well. website has most the info. Includes some workshops on flexible metadata
- Doc days of summer
  - Is metadata documentation up to date or do we need to do some editing there? Right now there isn’t anything that has come across organically, but we will keep checking in on this to see if there is work SMIG needs to do to contribute to this work
- Hyku funding - only about $3500 left to raise because of a matching in kind donation
Roadmap alignment group
- Still working to do some more cross Hyku/Hyrax work
- Still need a Hyrax tech lead for 2026
Flexible metadata demo at the Hyku meeting
- M3 from YAML files
- Nic Don demo on flexible metadata: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JvJUCQyyqo
- Jullie demo at IU about AllinsonFlex- SMIG_2023-06-27_Hardesty_Bulkrax-and-AllinsonFlex-Demo.mp4
- Project Surfliner/Superskunk demo (2023), https://youtu.be/1twW3CJrYJw?si=jKpWOxUGDKLviptm
- Questions:
  - We are encouraging everyone to watch the recording before the meeting so we can have a good discussion about it and hopefully get some questions answered
  - How does this compare to Allinson Flex at IU?
    - Allinson Flex has a user interface whereas flexible metadata currently does not. There is hope this will be developed further, but right now it has to be done through a YAML file
    - Allinson Flex (UI) has the interface, but it's actually preferred to use the YAML file. Take a long time through the dashboard, so much quicker in the YAML file
    - Editing the YAML file bring metadata people closer into the system architecture, helps demystifies what the system is doing
  - Flexible metadata does not add new metadata fields. How does this group feel about that?
    - (BMR) possible to describe how new fields would be added, if not in YAML?
    - Nic Don - You can add new metadata fields, but does not allow you to map to new fields, and you can’t add a new work type. For instance, you could have an editor field and contributor field that both map to contributor.
    - From surfliner (gem for reading m3 files) perspective - dont call it flexible metadata, call it configurable metadata. Will probably never have a UI for it. It works well because then there is a history to check. Downside is there can’t be multiple schemas, its only the one in the git repository. Can define the YAML file at startup. If you make an incompatible change a migration is probably needed
    - UCSB YAML - UCSB is entirely on Valkyrie. And using M3 for things not in Hyrax
    - Some things houndstooth can't quite do and UCSB has had to extend it in different ways - see more
      - Who says yes or no on what is added. Might need a working group at some point
  - From Rob on Slack: are there any objections to making houndstooth in to a gem so that we can use the validator to validate profiles for flexible metadata work?
    - Yes, the work is essentially finished
    - Going to go in a couple of steps. Current validator is tricky
    - Cyclical, the more it's used in flexible metadata, the more its backed the more it's maintained. Should be cautious of what we’re promoting. Hopefully before connect
  - Flexible Metadata going forward:
    - Let's get it out there and then see what we need next. If we need a gui or not
  - Backwards compatibility?
    - Updating records you can bring them up to the new standards, but the current records do not update automatically
    - Since there is versioning they stay on the version
    - The most effective way would be to run an export and then run an import
    - Would we look in the future at making it easier to export records from a specific version?
    - Want to make sure that we are not making any records invalid
  - Flexible Metadata & Hyrax
    - IU has Allinson Flex (ruby gem) which was the foundation of Flexible Metadata
    - Some open work to get some of the flexible metadata work into Hyrax
Documentation
- Working on defining things
- Where should documentation be housed
- Great overview of Samvera - Tech 101
How can we make this “easier” (hahaha)
- Trying to figure out what the out of the box looks like
- Sharing examples and resources really helps
Round tables/future meeting conversations:
- AI
- Accessibility
- Workflows
- Impact of politics and administration on metadata work
- Demos!
- IIIF and metadata
Open discussion

Next meeting: August 26, 2025, 2-3 pm Eastern

Metadata Call 2025-07-22

2025-07-22