DCMI Education Committee 2026 Report

2.1 TG1. Metadata Professional Development

Mission: Organizing webinars, tutorials, and professional development activities to educate and inform users about current metadata developments and technologies.

TG1 members:

• Gema Bueno de la Fuente Chair — University of Zaragoza, Spain
• Inkyung Choi — Sungkyunkwan University, S. Korea

TG1 focuses on metadata professional development through organizing webinars, tutorials, and training activities. The task group aims to educate and inform users about current developments and technologies for metadata, reaching audiences from newcomers to experts, including teachers of metadata in both academic and professional settings.

TG1 has been organizing webinars and tutorials in the recent six years. In the first half year of 2026, two DCMI and ASIST joint webinars were held and were well attended. There is an incoming one to be held in September.

• AI Empowered Metadata Research in Uncertain Environments

  • The webinar presents studies on AI empowered metadata research and information analysis in uncertain environments, involving various aspects of events, information, and people. In addition to traditional metadata elements, AI can also dynamically generate implicit metadata, such as semantic features and credibility of textual and visual information, severity levels of events, as well as needs, attentions, opinions, and influence of people, etc. Accurately identifying or utilizing AI techniques to generate metadata elements for various objects can facilitate various information analysis tasks empowered by AI in uncertain environments and improve the performance of AI models.

• Generating Smart Data for Cultural Heritage in the AI Era

  • This webinar brings some special cases in recent innovative research projects in the world for the information-bearing cultural heritage (CH) entities, which are usually non-textual and non-machine-readable, involving processing of manuscripts (carried on different materials), symbols, images, sound, scent, museum objects, rock arts, etc. The challenges and potentials of using AI-assisted automatic processing in this context and the role of knowledge organization systems (KOS) in improving the quality of the AI applications are very important and necessitate better understanding.

• AI-Driven Metadata Workflows, Professional Competencies, and the Future of Metadata Governance [INCOMING]

  • The rapid development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the practices of metadata creation and management. Drawing from two survey studies of perceived impact of AI on metadata practices (n=752) and academic librarians’ perceptions about new skills and competencies (n=155), this presentation explores the complex relationships among metadata tasks, metadata workflows and AI tools, identifies the new skills and competencies needed for academic librarians, and provides implications for metadata governance.

2.2 TG2. Metadata and AI

Mission: Investigating the intersection of metadata practices and artificial intelligence, including global surveys, competency frameworks, and curriculum development.

TG2 members:

• Ying-Hsang Liu Co-Chair — Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany
• Bartłomiej Włodarczyk Co-Chair — University of Warsaw, Poland
• Francisco Carlos Paletta Co-Chair — University of São Paulo, Brazil
• Shuheng Wu — Queens College, The City University of New York, USA
• Magnus Pfeffer — Stuttgart Media University, Germany
• Yunhyong Kim — University of Glasgow, UK
• Sangeun Han — University of Toronto, Canada
• Julaine Clunis — Old Dominion University, USA
• Dunia Llanes Padrón — University of Zaragoza, Spain
• Shu-Jiun (Sophy) Chen — Academia Sinica, Taiwan
• Keping Wang — Shandong University of Technology, China
• Junzhi Jia — Renmin University of China

Since its establishment in 2024, TG2 has used topic modeling to study and identify metadata-related topics, tools, and tasks in the literature, since AI is widely recognized as a transformative force poised to significantly impact metadata creation and management within libraries and information services. This transformation stems from AI's potential to automate time-consuming tasks like metadata extraction, tagging, classification, and quality improvement, leading to increased efficiency and accuracy in workflows. However, this shift is not without its complexities, as AI implementation brings significant challenges.

Since the initiative of this task group, it has pursued the following initiatives:

1. Global Survey of the Impact of AI on Metadata Creation and Management.
2. Competency Framework Development.
3. Curriculum & Training Design.
4. Metadata and AI, a co-edited book is finally in the production stage.

The most recent activities and ongoing activities include:

1. The AI Audit Tool Initiative.
2. A panel "Establishing Ethical Guidelines for Use of AI Tools in KOS and Metadata Services: A Framework of Human-Supervised Automation Workflows" in NKOS Workshop in DCMI2026, a joint work of this TG members.

3. Ongoing activities by individual members:

   1. LLM Benchmarking Test Collection for Subject Indexing.
   2. Curriculum Mapping of AI in Knowledge Organisation Education.
   3. AI Competency Framework for Metadata Professionals.
   4. A survey study by Dr. Zhixian (George) Yi and Ying-Hsang Liu, conducted in December 2025: "Academic librarians' perceptions of new skills and competencies in the age of artificial intelligence." This study was supported by Charles Sturt University’s Information Studies Research Output Acceleration Program New and Ongoing Project Funding.

During 2025–2026, TG2 significantly expanded its outreach in Brazil and Latin America through academic, professional, and international collaboration initiatives focused on the intersection of AI, metadata, and information science.

• A major milestone was the XI International Congress on Information Technology and Information Organization (TOI 2025) (210 registered participants), held under the central theme "Digital Transformation, Artificial Intelligence and Information Science: Contributions to the Future." The congress brought together researchers, librarians, information professionals, graduate students, and technology specialists from several countries to discuss the transformative impact of AI on metadata creation, knowledge organization, digital libraries, digital curation, research data management, and information services (https://doity.com.br/toi2025). The conference directly contributed to the objectives of TG2 by promoting the exchange of international experiences and identifying future competencies required for metadata professionals in the AI Era and creating opportunities for international research partnerships and dissemination of DCMI initiatives related to metadata and AI.
• Building upon the outcomes of the DCMI global AI survey, TG2 has also initiated regional discussions aimed at expanding the understanding of AI adoption within Portuguese-speaking countries. These activities are intended to support future comparative studies, competency development, and curriculum innovation while increasing awareness of DCMI initiatives among the Information Science community in Latin America.

The Brazilian and Latin American initiatives have reinforced TG2's mission by connecting international research with regional experiences, fostering capacity building, and promoting the responsible adoption of AI technologies for metadata creation and management.

TG2 is also directly involved in the Dublin Core Academy, which has Ying-Hsang Liu as the chair in 2026. The DC Academy was launched in October 2024, with two primary types of training programs: standards-oriented and technology-oriented. A course offered in June 2026 was: Metadata and AI: Navigating Opportunities, Risks, and Skills Gap .

2.3 TG3. Updates on Metadata Standards and Revisions

Mission: Tracking and reporting on updates to metadata standards, new developments, and revisions across the metadata landscape.

TG3 members:

• Marcia L. Zeng Chair — Kent State University, USA
• Julaine Clunis Co-Chair — Old Dominion University, USA
• Dunia Llanes Padrón — University of Zaragoza, Spain
• Maliheh Dorkhosh — University of Tehran, Iran

TG3 monitors and reports on updates to metadata standards and revisions in the 2020s. The group tracks new standards, notable developments, and changes to existing standards across the metadata landscape, keeping the community informed of the latest developments. To support this work, a dedicated webpage showcasing notable standards has kept updating which is available at https://nkos.dublincore.org/Metadata-standards.html, with three major sections:

1) “New & Notable Developments.” This section highlights significant new actions related to metadata, from official international standards organizations, best practices guidelines, and initiatives by societies across regions in the world. The coverage is broad and in-depth, spanning areas such as data documentation (particularly for those produced by surveys and other observational methods in the social, behavioral, economic, and health sciences), web accessibility, data privacy, climate and forecast metadata convention, interchange of cultural heritage information, AI system impact assessment, etc.

2) “Artificial Intelligence (AI) Standards and Guidelines.” This section focuses specially on AI related developments. It includes standards released or under development by ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42 Artificial intelligence (over 90 released or under-development), the EU’s Artificial intelligence Act, and guidelines by UNESCO, various governments, W3C, and others.

3) “Current Standards.” This section provides metadata resources organized into the following groups: General Purposes; Cultural Objects and Visual Resources; Research Data; Archives, Preservation, Provenance; and Publishing and Press Communications, plus the Standardized Schemes, Guidelines, and other Special Resources.

2.4 TG4. Best Practices on Metadata Creation and Management

Mission: Developing and disseminating best practices for metadata creation and management through training programs, webinars, and collaborative research.

TG4 members:

• Francisco Carlos Paletta Chair — University of São Paulo, Brazil
• Chiranthi Wijesundara — University of Colombo, Sri Lanka
• Bhakti Gala — Central University of Gujarat, India

TG4 has continued to strengthen its position as a global platform for advancing metadata best practices. Key activities have included planning metadata training programs, producing scholarly publications, and organizing webinars on the Fundamentals of Metadata. Collaborative research undertaken with Brazil, Sri Lanka, and India has contributed to the identification and documentation of metadata best practices, while engagement with the national libraries worldwide has supported the development of benchmarks for metadata implementation. TG4 also played an active role in the DCMI 2026 Conference through its Best Practices Session, further enhancing its contribution to the promotion and advancement of international metadata standards.

Two special webinars were held in Sri Lanka in 2025 by the DCMI Education Committee members:

• “Metadata and Digital Libraries: Standards and Practices,” by Chiranthi Wijesundara - Hosted by the National Library of Sri Lanka;
• “Open and Local LLMs for Sustainable AI Workflows in Memory Institutions,” by Nishad Thalhath - Hosted by the University Librarians’ Association of Sri Lanka.

During 2025–2026, TG4 also expanded its international outreach through a series of initiatives in Brazil and Latin America, aimed at promoting best practices in metadata creation, information organization, and digital curation.

• In the XI International Congress on Information Technology and Information Organization (TOI 2025 - ) which has participants from universities, libraries, research institutions, and cultural heritage organizations, the Pre-Conference was jointly organized. The event also served as an important platform for disseminating DCMI principles and strengthening collaboration among researchers, metadata professionals, librarians, and graduate students across Brazil and Latin America. It fostered dialogue on the adoption of international metadata standards and promoted the exchange of experiences related to innovative metadata practices in academic and cultural heritage institutions (https://l1nq.com/0bbr1hl).
• In preparation for the DCMI 2026 Conference, TG4 also launched a regional engagement strategy to encourage submissions to the Best Practices Session. This initiative includes direct outreach to universities, library systems, national libraries, and professional associations throughout Brazil and Latin America, aiming to increase regional participation and showcase innovative experiences in metadata creation and management within the international DCMI community.

These activities reinforce TG4's commitment to expanding the global visibility of metadata best practices while strengthening collaboration between DCMI and the Information Science communities in Latin America.

2.5 TG5. DCMI Education Website

Mission: Managing and developing the DCMI Education Committee website, providing articles, news, events, and community resources for metadata education.

TG5 Chair:

• Nishad Thalhath (University of Tsukuba, Japan; DCMI) - Chair

TG5 manages the DCMI Education website https://education.dublincore.org/ launched in 2025, which serves as a valuable resource for metadata education and training. Each TGs has its own webpage now.

2.6 TG6. Asia/Pacific Special Group

Mission: Expanding DCMI outreach in the Asia/Pacific region through inclusive metadata education, virtual and in-person events, capacity building, and knowledge exchange.

TG6 members:

• Jennifer Campbell-Meier Chair — Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
• Alison Day Co-Chair — Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
• Farrah Diana Saiful Bahry — Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia
• Inkyung Choi — Sungkyunkwan University, S. Korea
• Catherine Barnes — Adelaide University, Australia
• Bhakti Gala — Central University of Gujarat, India
• Zhixian (George) Yi — Charles Sturt University, Australia

TG6 was established in 2025, representing the Asia Pacific Task Force, with the mission to expand DCMI outreach in the Asia/Pacific region. The group's objectives include:

• Promoting inclusive metadata education across the Asia/Pacific region
• Organizing virtual and in-person events to engage regional communities
• Building capacity for metadata practice and education in the region
• Facilitating knowledge exchange between Asia/Pacific institutions and the broader DCMI community.

In 2026, TG6 has continued to develop metadata education and community engagement across the Asia/Pacific region through collaborative research, professional development, and outreach activities. A key focus has been the development of a regional research project examining reparative description practices in libraries, archives, and related cultural heritage settings. As part of this work, a survey will be distributed across New Zealand and Australia to gather insights into current practices, challenges, and opportunities for more inclusive and culturally responsive metadata.

The group is also expanding opportunities for regional engagement by developing presentations, workshops, and networking activities at conferences throughout the Asia/Pacific region. Looking ahead, TG6 plans to leverage the 2027 iConference in Wellington as an important gathering point for the metadata community, including hosting a dedicated panel session and facilitating an in-person meetup to strengthen connections between regional practitioners, educators, and researchers while fostering greater participation in the broader DCMI community.

2.7 TG7. Metadata for Cultural Heritages (CH)

Mission: Exploring metadata standards and practices for cultural heritage institutions, including museums, archives, and heritage organizations.

TG7 members:

• Chiranthi Wijesundara Co-Chair — University of Colombo, Sri Lanka
• Alaa Hussien Mahmoud Menshawy Co-Chair — Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Egypt
• Maliheh Dorkhosh Co-Chair — University of Tehran, Iran
• Farrah Diana Saiful Bahry — Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia
• Shu-Jiun (Sophy) Chen — Academia Sinica, Taiwan
• Keping Wang — Shandong University of Technology, China
• Yunhyong Kim — University of Glasgow, UK
• Alison Day — Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
• Bhakti Gala — Central University of Gujarat, India
• Sangeun Han — University of Toronto, Canada

TG7 is a new task group established in 2026, focusing on exploring metadata standards and practices for CH institutions. The group aims to address the unique metadata challenges faced by museums, archives, libraries, and other heritage organizations in describing and managing CH collections. It is collaborating with the DCMI Interest Group Core Cultural Metadata Model IG led by Dr. Shigeo Sugimoto.

The committee members are currently developing a database of standards related to CH to support the identification, organization, and comparison of metadata standards, schemas, and best practices used in the cultural heritage domain.

The group is also conducting a research project titled “Digital Cultural Heritage Archives/Repository Development in Asia”, which examines the development, management, and implementation of digital cultural heritage archives and repositories across Asian countries, with the aim of identifying current practices, challenges, and opportunities through scholarly literature.

4.1 "AI and the Transformation of Metadata Research and Practices – Global and Regional Perspectives" -- a book, a webinar, and a panel

Book: AI and the Transformation of Metadata Research and Practices – Global and Regional Perspectives. Editors: Ying-Hsang Liu, Marcia Lei Zeng, and Alasdair MacDonald. Cambridge University Press & Assessment [2026].

The book focuses on themes including AI applications for digitized resources, automating metadata processes, ethical considerations, and regional perspectives on AI adoption. It has five sections, with 20 chapters, mainly from DCMI Edu. members.

• Section 1: Introduction and Survey Insights
• Section 2: AI Applications for Digitised Resources and Languages
• Section 3: AI for Automating Metadata Processes
• Section 4: Addressing the Ethical Challenges and Societal Impact
• Section 5: Regional Perspectives: AI Adoption and Professional Development in Metadata Practices

Webinar: AI and the Transformation of Metadata Research and Practices – Global and Regional Perspectives, Ying-Hsang Liu, ASIS&T and DCMI (Oct. 30, 2025). https://www.dublincore.org/webinars/2025/ai-transformation-metadata-practices/

The webinar presented findings from the large-scale, multilingual global survey conducted by the DCMI Education Committee AI Task Group examining AI adoption in metadata practices across the globe and different regions. The insight from the forthcoming monograph was also brought up.

• Key findings include:

  • Overall positive professional attitudes toward AI integration in metadata practices
  • Perceived benefits as the primary driver of adoption
  • Lack of professional AI skills training identified as the main challenge
  • Insights from global and regional perspectives

Panel: AI and the Transformation of Metadata Research and Practices – Global and Regional Perspectives, DCMI 2025, University of Barcelona, Spain. https://www.dublincore.org/conferences/2025/sessions/panel-ai-metadata-transformation/

The panel, held on Oct. 23 at DCMI2025, was moderated by Magnus Pfeffer. It started with a report of a large-scale survey initiated by the DCMI Education Committee AI Task Group and activated by the committee members with multilingual and global participants. Aligning with the global survey data, the regional perspectives, expert contributions, practical guidance, and a focus on ethical considerations were presented by the panelists who are from Asia (Sophy Chen), Africa (Humphrey Kombe Keah), America (Marcia Zeng), and Europe (Ying-Hsang Liu and Yunhyong Kim).

• Introduction: AI and the Transformation of Metadata Research and Practices – Global and Regional Perspectives, Marcia Zeng
• Navigating the AI-Driven Metadata Landscape: A Human Centered Approach, Ying-Hsang Liu
• Rethinking AI Performance: Ethical Foundations and Cultural Contexts in Development and Evaluation, Yunhyong Kim
• Structuring Scholarly Reasoning with Generative AI and Ontology: Automating Metadata for Argumentation in Chinese Wooden Slip Research, Sophy Shu-Jun Chen
• A Survey of Existing and Potential AI Application Areas within the Cultural Heritage Sector in Kenya, Humphrey Kombe Keah

Overall, the panel addressed a critical and timely need in the library and information science field: understanding and adapting to the transformative potential of AI in metadata practices, especially in managing and using metadata in the evolving digital information landscape by library and information science professionals, researchers, educators, and students interested in the evolving landscape of metadata and the impact of AI on information organisation and access.

4.2 Presentations in the events across the world

There are many active activities of the Education Committee members who have given presentations in different events across the world.

• Bartłomiej Włodarczyk was a panelist of "Metadata and AI: Navigating Opportunities, Risks, and Skills Gap" organized by the Dublin Core Academy led by Ying-Hsang Liu. It was very well-received, with about 700 registered participants.
• Sophy Chen and Ying-Hsang Liu are panelists on "Establishing Ethical Guidelines for Use of AI Tools in KOS and Metadata Services: A Framework of Human-Supervised Automation Workflows" at this year’s NKOS Workshop at DCMI 2026.
• Junzhi Jia has a conference paper "Automated Classification of Chinese Books: A Large Language Model Approach to Knowledge Transfer and Domain Adaptation" in DCMI 2026.
• Maliheh Dorkhosh gave the presentations in multiple events in the world, containing (1)“Utilizing Ontology for the Digital Preservation of Cultural Heritage: A Case Study on Cave Paintings” in Academic Symposium on Digital-Intelligent Technologies for Cultural Heritages held by Dunhuang Academy, China (20-22^nd September 2025); (2)“Mapping Iranian Music Information Elements to the BIBFRAME Model: Identifying Gaps and Proposing Model Extensions” in BIBFRAME Workshop in Europe at 10th Annual Meeting 8-9 September 2026 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain [Online]; and (3) “Assessing Bias Among Academic Library Catalogers Based on the Philosophy of Limits Theory in Cataloging” at The 9th annual Congress of Information Scientists hosted by the Iranian Library and Information Society.
• Julaine Clunis gave a presentation “From black boxes to transparent AI systems: balancing innovation and responsibility using knowledge organization systems” at the ISKO UK Conference 2025 ("Knowledge Organization in the Age of AI: Innovation, Integration and Impact”) held in October 2025 [Online].
• Francisco Carlos Paletta had a presentation "Exploring the Impact of Artificial Intelligence Technologies on Teaching and Education" given at the 6th International Conference on Information Technology & Education (ICITED). He will also be in a panel on “AI and the Future of Research” in ISKO 2026 to be held in São Paulo, Brazil in August for the 19^th conference of the International Society for Knowledge Organization (ISKO). His presentation on "Auditable Knowledge Organization for Brazilian Research: AI Strategies, Practices, and Operational Frameworks" argues that AI can accelerate research in Brazil only if metadata becomes auditable infrastructure, with clear profiles, provenance, and human-in-the-loop checkpoints that turn “automation” into an accountable method.
• Marcia Zeng gave her invited presentation “Generating Smart Data in AI Era for Diverse Cultural Heritage Resources” for the information management community seminar on Transforming Unstructured Data with AI: Methodologies & Case Studies, organized by the United Nation’s Office of Information and Communications Technology in Feb. 2026. In the incoming ISKO 2026 conference, she will present “An Overview of the Current Standards addressing Data Quality by ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42 Artificial Intelligence+”, which aligns with the TG3’s task and outcome. She brought this up in multiple invited cross-country lectures as well.

4.3 Articles published recently

Dorkhosh, M. (2026). Educational Priorities of Iranian Knowledge Organization Practitioners. Librarianship and Information Organization Studies. [in press]. 10.30484/nastinfo.2026.3901.2358

Clunis, J. & Asare, E. (2025). A Bibliometric Analysis of AI-Driven Healthcare Literature Containing KOS Keywords: Trends, Themes, and Gaps. Knowledge Organization 52(5), 1 - 21. https://doi.org/10.31083/KO47054

Clunis, J. (2026). Epistemic Justice and Linked Data: Balancing Global Interoperability and Community Knowledge. Library Trends, 74 (4). https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2026.a991999

Jia, J. (2026). A Two-Stage Hybrid Intelligence Framework for Subject Indexing via Semantic Embedding and LLM Collaborative Optimization. Journal of Information Science. [in press].

Monika, W., Wijesundara, C., Sudiar, N., & Latiar, H. (2025). Assessing National Reading Habits through Machine Learning: Insights from the Indonesian Reading Interest Rate Survey (2020–2023). IT Journal Research and Development, 10(1), 35-52. https://journal.uir.ac.id/index.php/ITJRD/article/view/24019

Monika, W., Nasution, A. H., Syam, F. A., Wijesundara, C. (2025). Clustering Of Library’s Patron Behavior Using Machine Learning. Digital Zone: Jurnal Teknologi Informasi Dan Komunikasi, 16(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.31849/digitalzone.v16i1.19680

Zeng, M.L. (2026). The Role of Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS) in AI-Supported Semantic Integration-- Insights from Good Practice Examples. Knowledge Organization. [in press].