Aineistotason

Aineistotason is a concept used in Finnish information management and metadata practice to describe the level, scope, or granularity at which data or material is stored, described, and managed within an information system. The term combines aineisto, meaning data or material, with tason, meaning level, and is used to categorize objects in data models and repositories according to their contextual level in the data lifecycle.

Usage and interpretation: In metadata schemas, aineistotason is represented as a property that indicates what the object represents within a collection, such as a single observation, a data file, a dataset, or a packaged archival material. The level can influence access rights, retention rules, provenance tracking, and the way the data is described in catalog records. The exact definitions and labels for different levels vary between organizations and fields, and no single international standard governs the term.

Practical considerations: For researchers and librarians, specifying the aineistotason helps users understand what they are retrieving, how it can be reused, and how it relates to other materials in a repository. It also supports data governance by clarifying responsibilities and lineage across processing stages.

See also: metadata, data governance, information management, archival science, data lifecycle.