When metadata management meets UN SDGs : highlighting the role of the University of Pretoria libraries

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established by the United Nations (UN) is a global call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all by 2030. These goals encompass a broad range of interconnected issues, such as eradicating hunger, promoting gender equality, fostering sustainable cities, and combating climate change. As the world strives to achieve these ambitious targets, data and information play a pivotal role in monitoring progress and designing effective strategies. With higher education institutions well positioned to contribute to the successful implementation of the SDGs, sustainability is viewed as an essential aspect of a university's reputation. Yet, it still remains a challenge for most universities to report the impact and evidence of their research and contributions to the SDGs. The metadata librarians at the University of Pretoria (UP) libraries have therefore taken up the unique task of developing metadata on the institutional repository (UPSpace) and enriching keywords, to link research output towards the UN SDGs. They are aiming to align research outputs that date back to 2015 to display their researchers’ engagement. This task started at the Jotello F. Soga library (Faculty of Veterinary Science) as a pilot project and is now expanded to the other faculties of the university. This presentation focuses on the role of metadata in advancing the SDGs at the University of Pretoria. The UP metadata librarians are mapping research outputs on their institutional repositories as a collective, guided by the structured metadata framework that they have created. This will aid in measuring the University of Pretoria's SDGs contribution nationally and internationally. Metadata refers to data that provides information about other data, helping to organise, describe, and facilitate the discovery of information resources (Liu, Fu and Liu, 2023). In the context of SDGs, metadata plays a crucial role in mapping and categorising relevant information resources to specific goals, targets, and indicators. The data sources include research projects, academic publications, institutional initiatives, and community engagement activities, all linked to the SDGs.