Metadata for PDA

What can be said about the importance and impact of metadata for Patron-Driven Acquisitions (PDA) of ebooks in higher education institutions? The 22-page report (PDF) for UK’s JISC, “Patron Driven Acquisitions (PDA) and the role of metadata in the discovery, selection and acquisition of ebooks” (Ken Chad Consulting, Dec. 2011) addresses these questions. “This project investigated end user’s motivation for selecting an e-book and the role that metadata plays in the discovery, selection and eventual acquisition process.” Discovery services, unique identifiers, vendor metadata quality and social metadata are some of the buzzwords the report elaborates on. The project wiki has more details about the case studies, stakeholder interviews and other methods that were used to gather information. It also offers a number of additional resources and a very useful synthesis that brings together many of the points of the report in a concise way.