On 28 March 2024, Lisa Lawlis (MLIS), an Assistant Archivist at Archives and Special Collections, Western Libraries gave a Zoom presentation “Guest Talk title: “The Surprising Role of Metadata in Archival Practice” to Dr. Rubin’s Winter 2024 Thesaurus Construction and Metadata Course.“ With gratitude to Lisa, her overview was extremely useful, sufficiently technical, and to the point!

Brief abstract: This presentation is an overview of the role of metadata in the preservation of analogue, born digital, and digitized archival records. Lisa provided a brief overview of her career after MLIS, and lessons learned from working in archives for the past nine years. The presentation highlighted archival metadata standards such as Rules for Archival Description (RAD), Open Archival Information System (OAIS), and Preservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies (PREMIS). We looked at examples of preservation of metadata in archival management systems (for example, XML in AtoM) and metadata in digital preservation software. Lisa covered tips and tricks for navigating metadata standards in archival practice.  

The presentation also included an introduction into technical metadata needed for the preservation of digital records – for example, how do you utilize metadata to monitor the bit level health of digital records?  

Bio: Lisa Lawlis is an Assistant Archivist at Archives and Special Collections, Western Libraries. Lisa completed her MLIS in 2016 and specializes in Digital Preservation, Web Archiving, and preservation of Audio-Visual records. Lisa has worked in Municipal, Provincial, and Academic Archives.
See also her publications via SelectedWorks – Lisa Lawlis (bepress.com)