Metadata and Meta tag
Table of Content
What is metadata?
What does metadata do?
Metadata schemes
What is meta tag?
Meta tag example
What is metadata
- Metadata is commonly referred to as “data about
data” or “information about information”
- It is structured information that describes,
explains, locates, or makes it easier to retrieve,
use, or manage an information resource
- Some use it to refer to machine understandable
information, others use it only for records that
describe electronic resources
What is metadata
- 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.
What is metadata
• 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.
What is metadata-types
Descriptive metadata-describes a resource for
purposes such as discovery and identification. It can
include elements such as title, abstract, author, and
keywords
Structural metadata-indicates how compound objects
are put together. For instance, pages are ordered to
form chapters
Administrative metadata-provides information to help
manage a resource, such as when and how it was
created, file type, and other technical information, and
who can access it
What does metadata do?
Resource discovery
- Allow resources to be found by relevant criteria
- Identify resources
- Bring similar resources together
- Distinguish dissimilar resources
- Give location information
What does metadata do?
Organizing electronic resources
- As Web based resources grow, aggregate sites or
portals are useful in organizing links to resources
based on audience or topic
What does metadata do?
Interoperability
- Ability of multiple systems with different hardware and
software platforms, data structures, and interfaces to
exchange data with minimal loss of content and
functionality
- network can be searches more seamlessly
What does metadata do?
Digital Identification
- Include elements such as standard numbers to
uniquely identify the work or object to which the
metadata refers to.
What does metadata do?
Archiving and Preservation
- Key to ensure that resources will survive and continue
to be accessible into the future
- Track the lineage of digital object to detail its physical
characteristics, and to documents its behavior in order
to emulate it on future technologies.
Metadata Schemes
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Identify the purpose of the metadata model
Level of specificity of the elements
Identify resources
Infrastructure - who will supply it?
What type of information package is it?
Who will use the metadata?
Metadata Schemes-Dublin Core
• Metadata to improve information retrieval of
internet resources
• Developed predominantly by the bibliographic
community. Elements similar to bibliographic
surrogate
• Known for simplicity, semantic interoperability,
international consensus, extensibility,
metadata modularity on the Web
Metadata Schemes-Dublin Core
Metadata Schemes-MODS
• Stands for metadata object description
schema (MODS)
• Rich description of electronic resources
• Use of XML Schema language such as use of
optional ID attribute to facilitate linking at the
element level
• Ability to embed a rich description of
components in the related item element
Metadata Schemes-MODS
Metadata Schemes-Others
• Text Encoding Initiative (TEI)
• Metadata Encoding and Transmission
Standard (METS)
• Encoded Archival Description (EAD)
• Learning Object Metadata (LOM)
• MPEG Multimedia Metadata
Metadata Schemes-Integration
• How can interoperability be ensured with so
many metadata standards?
For instance, Resource Description
Framework (RDF) developed by World Wide
Web Consortium (W3C) is data model to
integrate multiple metadata schemes
 Elements from different schemes to be
combines in single resource description
Metadata Schemes
What is meta tag?
• Metadata of Webpage
• Provides search engines with information
about sites.
• Provide information to all sorts of clients and
each system processes only the meta tags
they understand and ignores the test.
What is meta tag?
• HTML codes that are inserted into the header
on a web page after the title tag
• In SEO, it refers to meta description tag and
the meta keywords tag
Meta tag example
Google uses description tag instead of keyword tag in web search ranking
Questions
Resources
Definitions
http://www.nisopress.org/publications/press
Dublin Core
http://www.dublincore.org/
MODS
http://www.loc/gov/standards/mods/
TEI
http://www.tei-c.org/
METS
http://www.loc/gov/standards/mets/
EAD
http://www.loc.gov/ead
LOM
http://ltsc.ieee.org/wg12
RDF
http://www.w3.org/RDF/