Metadata in a global world

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review best practices in metadata interoperability, and briefly describe the RDA Forum held at the 2006 ALA Midwinter Meeting held in San Antonio, TX.Design/methodology/approach – The article reviews a draft of the DLF/NSDL publication, Best Practices for Shareable Metadata.Findings – The article highlights the areas that are especially troublesome vis‐a‐vis metadata interoperability. It is recommended that data providers take time to plan how their repository will be searched in the larger information community.Originality/value – Readers will gain an understanding of how best to structure metadata so that they are retrievable by users of OAI services.