Metadata:An Introduction

By Wendy Duff

October 13, 2001ECURE

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 surrogate Management

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”.

Definition proposed by Cunningham

 Structured information that describes and/or

allows us to find, manage, control, understand or preserve other information over time.

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

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

Law Suits Over Metatags

Playboy!

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 AGLSOAISInterPares

SPIRT Metadata Scheme

Open Archival Information Systems

Figure 4‑12: Information Object Taxonomy

InformationObjectContent

InformationPackagingInformation

PreservationDescriptionInformation

DescriptiveInformation

. . .

Preservation Description

PreservationDescriptionInformation

ReferenceInformationProvenanceInformation

ContextInformation

FixityInformation

Table 4‑1: Examples of PDI Types Content

Information Type

Reference Provenance Context Fixity

Space Science Data

   Object identifierJournal reference   Mission, instrument, title, attribute set

 

   Instrument description   Processing history   Sensor description   Instrument   Instrument mode   Decommutation map   Software interface specification

   Calibration history   Related data sets   Mission   Funding history

   CRC   Checksum   Reed-Solomon coding

 

Digital Library

Collections

   Bibliographic description   Persistent identifier

   For scanned collections:    metadata about the digitisation process   pointer to master version   For born-digital publications:    pointer to the digital original   Metadata about the preservation process:   pointers to earlier versions of the collection item   change history

   Pointers to related documents in original environment at the time of publication

   Digital signature   Checksum   Authenticity indicator

SoftwarePackage

 

   Name   Author/Originator   Version number   Serial number

   Revision history   License holder   Registration   Copyright

   Help file   User guide   Related software   Language

   Certificate   Checksum   Encryption   CRC

records

datafiles

currenttechnical context

provenanceoriginal technicalcontext

form andstructure

activities

Strategy,methods

requirements,rules

simplified datamodel

InterPares Preservation Model

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

www.archiefschool.nl/metadata