Today we talk about “Metadata”. Some may ask what metadata is. According to today’s reading “Understanding Metadata” by the NISO Press, Metadata is structured information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use, or manage an information resource. In simpler terms it is information about information.
Metadata is used on a regular basis, for example the form in which pages are ordered to form chapters is a type of metadata called structural metadata in which the reading tells us it is how compound objects are put together. This is just one of the three types of metadata; there’s also descriptive and administrative.
A very interesting point made in there reading which says, and I quote, “Metadata is key to ensuring that resources will survive and continue to be accessible into the future.” In my opinion, this basically says that metadata is protecting and saving important sources which people will have no problem accessing is years to come.
I can simply state that metadata is a very important element in today’s world. It helps with resource discovery, organizing electronic resources, interoperability, archive presentation and also digital identification. It serves the same functions in resource discovery as good cataloguing does by allowing resources to be found by relevant criteria; bringing similar sources together, etc. Metadata can be stored independently or can be embedded in a digital object which is most time HTML. Dublin Core is one of the metadata elements which was created in Dublin, Ohio, and it was created to make life easier for authors so that they could describe their own web resources without any problem. The Dublin Core is basically used for cataloging resources or for collecting data from the internet. This element was created with such simplicity it is used by museum curators, researchers and music collectors.
So it is safe to say that Metadata plays a key role in today’s digital world and without it, obtaining resources would be one of the most difficult aspects to getting information about information. If anyone would like to read up more on Understanding Metadata they could follow this link. http://www.niso.org/publications/press/UnderstandingMetad
