Do you work with metadata? Might you need to work with metadata in the future? If so, then the Metadata Forum wants to hear from you! As a new initiative, run by UKOLN at the University of Bath and funded by JISC, the Metadata Forum is planning four face-to-face meetings throughout the UK and ongoing conversations online where anyone who has an interest in metadata can ask for help, share experiences and learn from others.

The Forum is open to everyone, from novice to expert and anyone in between who deals with metadata in their day-to-day work. And the Forum wants to hear from you! And we’re not just seeking experts. If you have metadata hopes, metadata dreams and (perhaps especially) metadata fears, bring them along to the Forum. The questions you want answering and the areas you want to discuss will be the foundation of both the face-to-face meetings and the ongoing online conversations. If you need something, or want to share something, let us know.

The Metadata Forum will be launched at the Open Repositories 2010 Conference in Madrid, 6th-9th July 2010 at a Birds of a Feather session to be held on 7th July, 3.45pm – 4.45pm. if you’re attending the conference, please come along to find out more and to help shape the subjects the Forum will address.

If you’re not able to attend the meeting but would like to suggest topics for discussion, demonstrations you would like to give or to see, have any ideas for exchange of experience workshops or have any other metadata-related thoughts, you can contact Stephanie Taylor of the Metadata Forum at s.taylor@ukoln.ac.uk  , leave a comment here on the blog and/or follow the Forum on Twitter – @MetadataForum

Further details of events and links to Forum resources will be published regularly here on the blog.