Introduction To Metadata

An overview of metadata: what it is, its types and uses, and how it can help to make Web resources more accessible and comprehensible. Contains articles, a glossary, and a list of acronyms relating to metadata.

Metadata provides a means of indexing, accessing, preserving, and discovering digital resources. The volume of digital information available over electronic networks has created a pressing need for standards that ensure correct and proper use and interpretation of the data by its owners and users. Well-crafted metadata is needed more now than ever before and helps users to locate, retrieve, and manage information in this vast and complex universe. The third edition of Introduction to Metadata, first published in 1998, provides an overview of metadata, including its types, roles, and characteristics; a discussion of metadata as it relates to Web resources; and a description of methods, tools, standards, and protocols for publishing and disseminating digital collections. This revised edition is an indispensable resource in the field, addressing advances in standards such as Linked Open Data, changes in intellectual property law, and new computing technologies, and offering an expanded glossary of essential terms.

Everything we need to know about metadata, the usually invisible infrastructure for information with which we interact every day. When “metadata” became breaking news, appearing in stories about surveillance by the National Security Agency, many members of the public encountered this once-obscure term from information science for the first time. Should people be reassured that the NSA was “only” collecting metadata about phone calls—information about the caller, the recipient, the time, the duration, the location—and not recordings of the conversations themselves? Or does phone call metadata reveal more than it seems? In this book, Jeffrey Pomerantz offers an accessible and concise introduction to metadata. In the era of ubiquitous computing, metadata has become infrastructural, like the electrical grid or the highway system. We interact with it or generate it every day. It is not, Pomerantz tell us, just “data about data.” It is a means by which the complexity of an object is represented in a simpler form. For example, the title, the author, and the cover art are metadata about a book. When metadata does its job well, it fades into the background; everyone (except perhaps the NSA) takes it for granted. Pomerantz explains what metadata is, and why it exists. He distinguishes among different types of metadata—descriptive, administrative, structural, preservation, and use—and examines different users and uses of each type. He discusses the technologies that make modern metadata possible, and he speculates about metadata's future. By the end of the book, readers will see metadata everywhere. Because, Pomerantz warns us, it's metadata's world, and we are just living in it.

Since it was first published, LIS students and professionals everywhere have relied on Miller’s authoritative manual for clear instruction on the real-world practice of metadata design and creation. Now the author has given his text a top to bottom overhaul to bring it fully up to date, making it even easier for readers to acquire the knowledge and skills they need, whether they use the book on the job or in a classroom. By following this book’s guidance, with its inclusion of numerous practical examples that clarify common application issues and challenges, readers will learn about the concept of metadata and its functions for digital collections, why it’s essential to approach metadata specifically as data for machine processing, and how metadata can work in the rapidly developing Linked Data environment; know how to create high-quality resource descriptions using widely shared metadata standards, vocabularies, and elements commonly needed for digital collections; become thoroughly familiarized with Dublin Core (DC) through exploration of DCMI Metadata Terms, CONTENTdm best practices, and DC as Linked Data; discover what Linked Data is, how it is expressed in the Resource Description Framework (RDF), and how it works in relation to specific semantic models (typically called “ontologies”) such as BIBFRAME, comprised of properties and classes with “domain” and “range” specifications; get to know the MODS and VRA Core metadata schemes, along with recent developments related to their use in a Linked Data setting; understand the nuts and bolts of designing and documenting a metadata scheme; and gain knowledge of vital metadata interoperability and quality issues, including how to identify and clean inconsistent, missing, and messy metadata using innovative tools such as OpenRefine.

This book offers a comprehensive guide to the world of metadata, from its origins in the ancient cities of the Middle East, to the Semantic Web of today. The author takes us on a journey through the centuries-old history of metadata up to the modern world of crowdsourcing and Google, showing how metadata works and what it is made of. The author explores how it has been used ideologically and how it can never be objective. He argues how central it is to human cultures and the way they develop. Metadata: Shaping Knowledge from Antiquity to the Semantic Web is for all readers with an interest in how we humans organize our knowledge and why this is important. It is suitable for those new to the subject as well as those know its basics. It also makes an excellent introduction for students of information science and librarianship.

Finally, a book on metadata for the media professional!

Metadata is used to organize and access information in an effective way. This is a comprehensive description of the various forms of metadata, its applications, and how librarians can use it. Both descriptive and nondescriptive forms of metadata are defined and applied to library functions.

What is metadata and what do I need to know about it? These are two key questions for the information professional operating in the digital age as more and more information resources are available in electronic format. This is a thought-provoking introduction to metadata written by one of its leading advocates. It assesses the current theory and practice of metadata and examines key developments - including global initiatives and multilingual issues - in terms of both policy and technology. Subjects discussed include: What is metadata? definitions and concepts Retrieval environments: web; library catalogues; documents and records management; GIS; e-Learning Using metadata to enhance retrieval: pointing to content; subject retrieval; language control and indexing Information management issues: interoperability; information security; authority control; authentication and legal admissibility of evidence; records management and document lifecyc≤ preservation issues Application of metadata to information management: document and records management; content management systems for the internet Managing metadata: how to develop a schema Standards development: Dublin Core; UK Government metadata standards (eGIF); IFLA FRBR Model for cataloguing resources Looking forward: the semantic web; the Web Ontology Working Group. Readership: This book will be essential reading for network-oriented librarians and information workers in all sectors and for LIS students. In addition, it will provide useful background reading for computer staff supporting information services. Publishers, policy makers and practitioners in other curatorial traditions such as museums work or archiving will also find much of relevance.

In this new, authoritative textbook, internationally recognized metadata experts Zeng and Qin have created a comprehensive primer for advanced undergraduate, graduate, or continuing education courses in information organization, information technology, cataloging, digital libraries, electronic archives, and, of course, metadata.

Find out what makes metadata an exciting addition to resource description Metadata: A Cataloger’s Primer provides catalog librarians and students with a comprehensive instructional resource on the ongoing convergence of cataloging and metadata. Equally valuable in the classroom and as a professional reference tool, this unique book serves as an introduction to the concepts of metadata within bibliographic contexts, demonstrating the potential for resource description. The book introduces various metadata schemes, including the Dublin Core, Encoded Archival Description (EAD), and Extensive Markup Language (XML), and discusses how to plan and implement a metadata-driven digital library. Metadata: A Cataloger’s Primer is more than a mere introduction to metadata applications and management. The book’s contributors present basic operational definitions, an outline of the evolution of metadata in the cataloging community, and a discussion of basic metadata techniques, calling on hard-earned knowledge gained from their experiences as educators working in cataloging and metadata applications. They provide work forms, work plans, and practical examples that demonstrate the application of metadata for resource description and depository development. Metadata: A Cataloger’s Primer examines: data structures MODAL (metadata objectives and principles, domains, and architectural layout) framework literary displacement knowledge domains discourse communities information ecologies personal metadata electronic resources authorship attributes cultural information resources instantiation data modeling DTD (document type definition) digital libraries and much more! Metadata: A Cataloger’s Primer is an invaluable learning resource filled with introductory and theoretical material, original research, and instructive material for cataloging librarians and students.