Digitalkataloger

Digitalkataloger, or digital catalogs, are electronic systems that organize and present items such as products, library materials, artworks, or datasets. They store descriptive metadata, images, and sometimes digital content, and provide searchable interfaces that support retrieval, browsing by facets, and linking to related resources.

They are used across sectors, including e-commerce product catalogs, library OPACs, museum catalogs, and government or open-data portals. They can be standalone applications or integrated into content management systems, and often expose APIs to enable programmatic access and external integration.

Metadata and standards underpin digitalkataloger. Common models include Dublin Core and MARC for libraries, ONIX for products, and schema.org for web semantics. DCAT is used for data catalogs. Metadata may be encoded in XML, JSON, or RDF, with harvesting via OAI-PMH and search via search engines like Solr or Elasticsearch. APIs typically use REST or GraphQL.

Benefits include improved discoverability, scalability, and up-to-date inventories, while challenges involve maintaining data quality, achieving interoperability across systems, handling multilingual metadata, and managing licensing and rights.

Trends focus on linked data and open data, persistent identifiers, and user-centric design. Governance and data stewardship are increasingly emphasized to ensure consistency and long-term accessibility of digital catalogs.