The "Wicked Problem" of Neutral Description: Toward a Documentation Approach to Metadata Standards. Issue 3 (3rd April 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Long, Kara; Thompson, Santi; Potvin, Sarah; Rivero, Monica
• Is Part Of: Cataloging & classification quarterly. Volume 55:Issue 3(2017)
• Page Start: 107
• Page End: 128
• Publication Date: 2017-04-03
• Subjects: Metadata standards -- electronic theses and dissertations -- institutional repositories -- descriptive cataloging; Cataloging -- Periodicals; Classification -- Books -- Periodicals; 025.3
• DOI: 10.1080/01639374.2016.1278419
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0163-9374

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Increasingly, metadata standards have been recognized as constructed rather than neutral. In this article, we argue for the importance of a documentation approach to metadata standards creation as a codification of this growing recognition. By making design decisions explicit, the documentation approach dispels presumptions of neutrality and, drawing on the "wicked problems" theoretical framework, acknowledges the constructed nature of standards as "clumsy solutions."