Strategies and Tools for Metadata Migration Analysis and Harmonization

Abstract

The University of Houston (UH) Libraries, in partnership and consultation with numerous institutions, was awarded an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership/Project Grant to support the creation of the Bridge2Hyku (B2H) Toolkit. Research shows that institutions are inclined to switch from proprietary digital systems to open source digital solutions. However, content migration from proprietary systems to open source repositories remains a barrier for many institutions because of a lack of tools, tutorials, and documentation. The B2H Toolkit includes general migration strategies and use cases as well as tools specifically designed for transitioning from CONTENTdm, a digital collections management software, to the Hyku digital repository. The toolkit acts as a comprehensive resource to guide migration practitioners in migration planning, metadata analysis and harmonization, and to facilitate the repository migration process. This paper focuses on how the toolkit’s metadata guidelines and migration tools aid in migration planning, metadata analysis, metadata application profile development, metadata harmonization, and bulk ingest of digital objects into Hyku.