Thematic digital libraries at the University of Porto : metadata integration over a repository infrastructure

Abstract

The University of Porto has a well-established set of specialized libraries serving the research and student population of its 14 schools. Thematic digital libraries can be valuable for organizing specific collections and for supporting emergent communities. This work focuses on two case studies, one in the area of the Fine Arts and the other in the area of Food and Nutrition. For building both digital libraries we propose to use the existing university repository infrastructure and to establish a metadata workflow that makes use of available descriptions in the library catalogues and in the university information system. We expect that such an approach, which takes into account the institutional context and resources, can be used in other collections at our university and inspire similar initiatives elsewhere.