Metadata for Transmedia Resources (Chandos Information Prefessional)

Transmedia is a set of techniques that use multiple media platforms (books, films, TV shows, games, live performances, etc.) to create a single narrative. Each of the platforms tells a unique part of the story, enhancing the reader’s experience of the whole. Cataloguing Transmedia Resources offers insight into some of the challenges, both conceptual and practical, of describing and providing access to transmedia resources in libraries. Whether introducing specific new demands, or shedding new light on the long-existing questions in the realm of bibliographic organization (What is a work? What is an author?), transmedia content delivery calls for rethinking of principles, standards and workflows used in descriptive cataloguing. This is in great part due to the complex networks of relationships that operate between and within transmedia works.

Based on a brief overview of the sociocultural, commercial and poetic background of transmedia, the book lays stress on the importance of effective bibliographic organization for transmedia resources in order to support the reader’s engagement with the content and the development of transliteracy skills. It explores theories and practices of bibliographic organization in the context of their application to transmedia resources, focusing on current tendencies such as implementation of FRBR model(s) and RDF syntax. It pays particular attention to new forms of authorship, or forms now brought into focus, that are typically though not exclusively found in transmedia, such as networked or fictitious authorship. It suggests that the ‘convergence’ of standards employed in various cultural heritage communities, as well as the development of data linking possibilities, are the best way to meet the challenges of convergence that is typical of today’s media landscape.

·         Explores transmedia from the point of view of information organization

·         Uses concrete examples of recent publishing practices such as ‘media convergence’, new forms of authorship etc., to evaluate data models, standards, formats and technologies used in or proposed for today’s bibliographic organization

·         Presents an original and unique approach to the topic

·         Of urgent interest to practitioners and students of cultural heritage metadata creation and application, developers of linked data search tools and services, and the digital humanities community