Experimenting with DDI3 at the UK Data Archive: Moving Forward While Accommodating Legacy

This paper will present the UK Data Archive's work on building a new metadata infrastructure to accommodate new features of DDI3, while enabling legacy metadata to be seamlessly created and used in our everyday services. Pilot work has been concentrating on enhancing the Archive's Question Bank using DDI3 and exposing the richer features of chosen longitudinal data series. Adopting new enriched metadata capabilities is a challenge for established Archives who are often bound by the way they have chosen to expose and publish metadata. Any new systems must either compliment or replace existing systems using older version of DDI, such as online catalogues and data browsing and display tools like Nesstar. The older the archive the greater the legacy! Ensuring that older systems and their workflows are richly documented is an important part of being able to move on.