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Metadata Basics

This metadata guide serves as a starting point for anyone interested in understanding metadata, especially those who conduct or support research activities, study library and information science, or manage cultural heritage collections.

Welcome

This guide is here to give you a basic understanding of metadata and briefly explore the following questions:

1. What is metadata?

2. What is metadata used for?

3. What is the creation process for metadata?

4. Why should you care about metadata?

What are Metadata?

Metadata are commonly described as "data about data." But what does that really mean?

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) definition states:

"Metadata is structured information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use, or manage an information resource."

The National Institute of Standards and Technology defines metadata as:

"Information describing the characteristics of data including, for example, structural metadata describing data structures (e.g., data format, syntax, and semantics) and descriptive metadata describing data contents (e.g., information security labels)."

Metadata come in many forms and can be found in most software packages we use every day. Listening to music on Spotify, posting photos on Instagram, finding videos on YouTube, managing finances through applications like Rocket Money or Quicken, and searching a library catalog: all of these come with metadata (Riley, 2017).

Good metadata ensures that data are FAIR: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Re-usable.

  • Findable: Metadata make it easier to find relevant data. Most searches as conducted using text (like a Google search). This means formats like images, videos, and audio are limited unless textual metadata are available. Text documents are also easier to find with the addition of metadata explaining exactly what the document is about.
  • Accessible: Once the user finds data, they need to know how they can be accessed, possibly including authentication and authorization.
  • Interoperable: Data usually need to be integrated with other data. Therefore, it is important the data are able to interoperate with applications or workflows for analysis, storage, and processing. Assigning metadata enable a data set to be integrated with other data.
  • Re-usable: Understanding the structure of data is vital to re-use. Data need to be well described so that they can be replicated and/or combined in different settings.

What is metadata used for?

Metadata is used to describe, locate, and manage other data. This helps facilitate the organization, discovery, and understanding of the data. Essentially, it helps users and systems make sense of the information they are working with.

Here is a breakdown of what metadata are used for:

  1. Organizing and managing data
    • cataloging and indexing
    • data discovery
    • classification and categorization
    • data governance
  2. Facilitating data understanding and reuse
    • contextual information
    • data provenance
    • interoperability
  3. Supporting various functions
    • search engines
    • database management
    • workflow management
    • compliance and auditing