Topic Areas
The unit is an introduction to metadata concepts, various types of metadata, and tools to create, use, and maintain metadata. Includes descriptive, administrative, structural, preservation, and meta-metadata.
Learning Objectives
- Identify the meaning of metadata, its components, and characteristics.
- Define different types of metadata standards and their roles.
Guiding Questions
- What is meant by metadata?
- What are the different types of metadata?
- What purposes do these different types of metadata serve?
- How are different types of metadata implemented?
Required Readings
Recommended Readings
- Elings and Waibel, "Metadata for All"
- Gartner, Metadata in the Digital Library: Building an Integrated Strategy with XML, Chapters 2 and 6
- Havens and Storey, "Metadata Everywhere"
- Heery and Patel, "Application Profiles"
- Miller, Metadata for Digital Collections
- Mitchell, Metadata Standards and Web Services in Libraries, Archives, and Museums
- St. Pierre and LaPlant, "We Used to Call It Publishing: Issues in Crosswalking"
- Swoger, "What is Metadata? A Christmas-themed exploration"
- Zeng, Metadata, Chapters 1–2
Relevant Articles from The Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science
- Greenberg, "Metadata and Digital Information"
- Zeng and Chan, "Semantic Interoperability"
Selected Metadata Sites
- Crosswalk examples:
- Dublin Core Metadata Initiative: http://www.dublincore.org/
- METS: Metadata Encoding & Transmission Standard: http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/
- Miller, "Metadata Resources"
- PREMIS: Preservation Metadata Maintenance Activity: http://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/