What is Metadata?

Metadata is “data” that provides information about other data”.^[1] In other words, it is “data about data”. Many distinct types of metadata exist, including descriptive metadata, structural metadata, administrative metadata,^[2] reference metadata, statistical metadata.^[3] and legal metadata.

Descriptive metadata is descriptive information about a resource. It is used for discovery and identification. It includes elements such as title, abstract, author, and keywords.
Structural metadata is metadata about containers of data and indicates how compound objects are put together, for example, how pages are ordered to form chapters. It describes the types, versions, relationships and other characteristics of digital materials.^[4]
Administrative metadata is information to help manage a resource, like resource type, permissions, and when and how it was created.^[5]
Reference metadata is information about the contents and quality of statistical data.
Statistical metadata, also called process data, may describe processes that collect, process, or produce statistical data.^[6]
Legal metadata provides information about the creator, copyright holder, and public licensing, if provided.

What is an Example of Metadata?

Example 1:

Metadata in Social Media

Every time you friend someone on Facebook, listen to music Spotify recommends for you, post a status or share someone’s tweet, metadata is at work in the background. Pinterest users can create boards of related articles because of metadata stored with those articles.

Metadata is useful in very specific social media situations such as when you’re looking for someone on Facebook. You can see a profile image and a short description of the Facebook user to learn just the basics about them before deciding to friend them or send them a message

Ex2:

Metadata and Database Management

Metadata in the world of database management might address the size and formatting or other characteristics of a data item. It’s essential to interpreting the contents of database data. The eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is one markup language that defines data objects using a metadata format.

For example, if you have a set of data with dates and names spread all about, you can’t know what the data is representing or what the columns and rows are describing. With basic metadata like column names, you can quickly glance at the database and understand what a particular set of data is describing.

If there’s a list of names without metadata to describe them, they could be anything, but when you add metadata to the top that says “Employee’s Let Go,” you now know that those names represent all of the employees who have been fired. The date beside them can also be understood as something useful like “Termination Date” or “Hire Date.”

Why is Metadata is so important?

Metadata is created and collected because it enables and improves use of that data.

Good metadata can make up for human fallibilities. People forget and misplace things, and leave research projects taking their knowledge of the research methodology and the data with them. Metadata ensures that we will be able find data, use data, and preserve and re-use data in the future.

Finding Data: Metadata makes it much easier to find relevant data. Most searches are done using text (like a Google search), so formats like audio, images, and video are limited unless text metadata is available. Metadata also makes text documents easier to find because it explains exactly what the document is about.
Using Data: To use a dataset, researchers need to understand how the data is structured, definitions of terms used, how it was collected, and how it should be read.
Re-using Data: Researchers often want to re-use data collected for another project for their own project. The data still needs to be found and used, but often at a higher level of trust and understanding. Re-using data often requires careful preservation and documentation of the metadata.

This should give you a good understanding of what metadata is. How do you use Metadata?

To learn more about Metadata consider viewing the following book:

Metadata