Metadata:
An Introduction
By
Wendy Duff
October 13, 2001
ECURE
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
 Encoding
 Providing 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 data
 Something 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 generated
 Supplied by creator of electronic resource
 Supplied 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
 Simplicity
 Semantic 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 machineunderstandable 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
 VERS
 GILS - and the AGLS
 OAIS
 InterPares
SPIRT Metadata Scheme
Open Archival Information
Systems
Figure 4-12: Information Object Taxonomy
Information
Object
...
Content
Information
Preservation
Description
Information
Packaging
Information
Descriptive
Information
Preservation Description
Prese rva tion
Descripti on
Information
Refere nce
Information
Provena nce
Information
Conte xt
Information
Fixity
Information
Table 4-1: Examples of PDI Types
Content
Information
Type
Space
Science Data
Digital
Library
Collections
Software
Package
Reference
Provenance
Context
Fixity
 Object identifier
Journal reference
 Mission,
instrument, title,
attribute set
 Instrument description
 Processing history
 Sensor description
 Instrument
 Instrument mode
 Decommutation map
 Software interface
specification




 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
















Name
Author/Originator
Version number
Serial number
Revision history
License holder
Registration
Copyright
Calibration history
Related data sets
Mission
Funding history
Help file
User guide
Related software
Language
 CRC
 Checksum
 Reed-Solomon
coding
Certificate
Checksum
Encryption
CRC
InterPares Preservation Model
provenance
form an d
structure
original
technical
con text
records
activities
Strategy,
methods
data
files
current
technical
con text
requirements,
rules
simplified datamod el
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 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?
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/sum
mary.html
More Sources
 SPIRT Recordkeeping Metadata Project
http://www.sims.monash.edu.au/rcrg/researc
h/spirt/index.html
 www.archiefschool.nl/metadata