An Introduction to Metadata by Wendy Duff ECURE 2000 October 6, 2000

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? l Librarians equate it with a complete bibliographic record l Information technologists equate it to database schema or definitions of the data elements l 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 surrogates

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”.

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

Metadata generation for an image using MEX2

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 l Coverage l Description l Type l Relation l Source l Subject l Title §Intellectual Property § § Contributor § Creator § Publisher § Rights

Dublin Core Element §Instantiation l Date l Format l Identifier l Language

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 § Lars Marius Garshol § 1.0 § 20.jun.97 § What is XML? SGML light....

Electronic Records Metadata Project §Functional Requirements for Evidence in Recordkeeping §The SPIRT Metadata Project §VERS §GILS - and the AGLS

Functional Requirements for Evidence in Recordkeeping Metadata Model §Six Layers l Handle Layer l Terms and Conditions Layer l Structural Layer l Contextual Layer l Content Layer l Use History Layer

SPIRT Metadata Scheme

Victoria Recordkeeping Model §VERS is an exchange standard that allows transfer of metadata (and content) from the system it was created in to future systems as yet unbuilt. §A VERS Encapsulated Object (VEO) – a record – is designed to be self documenting so that the record can subsequently be extracted without reference to external documentation.

Encapsulated Object §A VEO includes metadata that supports the management, finding, and retrieval of the electronic record. §A VERS record contains one or more documents, each of which may be stored as one or more encodings (physical file formats).

VERS Record Structure

Record Metadata

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. §CLIR Reports §Digital Libraries: Metadata Resources §Australian Government Locator Service (AGLS) Metadata Standard. mary.html

More Sources §SPIRT Recordkeeping Metadata Project ch/spirt/index.html