An Introduction to Metadata by

Wendy Duff

ECURE 2000

October 6, 2000

Metadata

The term "meta" comes from a Greek word that denotes something of a higher or more fundamental nature. Metadata, then, is data about other data.

The term refers to any data used to aid the identification, description and location of networked electronic resources

Defining Metadata

Does data about data mean anything?

Librarians equate it with a complete bibliographic record

Information technologists equate it to database schema or definitions of the data elements

Archivists include context information, restrictions and access terms, index terms, etc.

Bibliographic Metadata

Providing a description of the information package along with other information necessary for management and preservation

EncodingProviding access to this description

Predominantly discovery and retrieval

Encoding

Surrogate records are encoded by assigning tags, letter, or words

Why encode? For display Provide access Integration of surrogates

Beyond Discovery and Retrieval

Gilliland-Swetland (1998) explains “metadata also documents how that objects behaves, its functions and use, relationship to other objects and how it should be managed”.

Different Communities ….Different Metadata

Developers of the Interoperabilty of Data in E-Commerce Systems (indecs) ideintified metadata for protecting intellectual property rights of creators and publishers.

The Research Library Group’s Working Group on Preservation Issues of Metadata identified metadata for “digital master files that have preservation-based intent”.

Metadata to Information Technologists

The data that defines the data elements in a table

Data that controls or explains other dataSomething that is not part of the bit stream of

a record but needed to understand the data in the record

One systems metadata is another systems data

Source of Metadata

Automatically generatedSupplied by creator of electronic resourceSupplied by 3rd party

Metadata generation for an image using MEX2

Dublin Core

Metadata to improve information retrieval of internet resources

Developed predominantly by the bibliographic community. Elements similar to bibliographic surrogate

Characteristics of Dublin Core

SimplicitySemantic Interoperability International Consensus Extensibility Metadata Modularity on the Web

Dublin Core Elements

Content Coverage Description Type Relation Source Subject Title

Intellectual Property

Contributor Creator Publisher Rights

Dublin Core Element

Instantiation Date Format Identifier Language

Resource Description Framework(RDF)

RDF provides interoperability between applications that exchange machine-understandable information on the Web

Metadata and XML

Provides a means of encoding and exchanging metadata

EAD, TEI, VERS

XML Example

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?> <!DOCTYPE FAQ SYSTEM "FAQ.DTD"> <FAQ>

<INFO> <SUBJECT> XML </SUBJECT>

<AUTHOR> Lars Marius Garshol</AUTHOR>

<EMAIL> larsga@ifi.uio.no </EMAIL> <VERSION> 1.0 </VERSION>

<DATE> 20.jun.97 </DATE>

</INFO> <PART NO="1"> <Q NO="1"> <QTEXT>What is XML?</QTEXT> <A>SGML light.</A> </Q> ...</PART>

</FAQ>

Electronic Records Metadata Project

Functional Requirements for Evidence in Recordkeeping

The SPIRT Metadata Project VERSGILS - and the AGLS

Functional Requirements for Evidence in Recordkeeping Metadata Model

Six Layers Handle Layer Terms and Conditions Layer Structural Layer Contextual Layer Content Layer Use History Layer

SPIRT Metadata Scheme

Victoria Recordkeeping Model

VERS is an exchange standard that allows transfer of metadata (and content) from the system it was created in to future systems as yet unbuilt.

A VERS Encapsulated Object (VEO) – a record – is designed to be self documenting so that the record can subsequently be extracted without reference to external documentation.

Encapsulated Object

A VEO includes metadata that supports the management, finding, and retrieval of the electronic record.

A VERS record contains one or more documents, each of which may be stored as one or more encodings (physical file formats).

VERS Record Structure

ObjectMetadata

SignatureBlock

SignatureBlock

ObjectContent

RecordMetadata

Document1

Document2

Documentn

...

DocumentMetadata

Encoding1

Encodingn

...

EncodingMetadata

DocumentData

VERSEncapsulated

Object

ObjectContent

Document Encoding

Record Metadata

ContextAgentTitleSubjectRelationFunctionTypeAggregation LevelFormatLocationTransaction

Record MetadataHandleDescriptionLanguageCoverageRecord IdentifierVEO Identifier

PolicyRights ManagementDisposalMandate

HistoryDateManagement HistoryUse HistoryPreservation History

Document

Document Metadata

DescriptionDocument Source

Encoding 1 Encoding 2 Encoding n

…

Metadata Facts to Remember

Metadata does not have to be digital

Metadata relates to more than the description of an object.

Metadata can come from a variety of sources

Metadata continue to accrue during the life of an information object or system.

One information object's metadata can simultaneously be another information object's data. (Anne Gilliland-Swetland, Setting the Stage)

Developing Metadata Schemes

Identify the purpose of the metadata modelLevel of specificity of the elementsIdentify resourcesInfrastructure - who will supply it?What type of information package is it?Who will use the metadata?Existing metadata models

Other Sources

Introduction to Metadata: Pathways to Digital Information. http://www.getty.edu/gri/standard/intrometadata/index.htm

CLIR Reports http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/reports.html Digital Libraries: Metadata Resources

http://www.ifla.org/II/metadata.htm Australian Government Locator Service (AGLS) Metadata

Standard. http://www.naa.gov.au/recordkeeping/gov_online/agls/summary.html

More Sources

SPIRT Recordkeeping Metadata Project http://www.sims.monash.edu.au/rcrg/research/spirt/index.html