Metadades

Metadades, in information science, are structured data that describe other data. They help identify, locate, understand, and manage resources. Metadata can describe content, context, quality, condition, and provenance. It can be embedded within a file or stored separately in catalogs or databases. Metadata is essential for discovery, access control, interoperability, and long-term preservation.

Metadata types include descriptive metadata (title, author, subjects, keywords), administrative metadata (creation date, rights, access conditions, preservation actions), structural metadata (how parts of a resource relate to each other), and preservation metadata (provenance, fixity, lineage). Examples include Dublin Core for simple resource descriptions, EXIF data embedded in image files, MARC records used by libraries, METS and PREMIS for digital preservation, and schema.org annotations for web pages.

Standards and schemas enable interoperability across institutions and systems. Metadata may be generated at creation, ingested later, or harvested from other sources. Challenges include incomplete or inconsistent metadata, varying granularity, and privacy or copyright considerations. Effective metadata governance, quality control, and documentation are important to maximize reuse, discovery, and reliable preservation.

Metadades play a central role in libraries, archives, museums, data repositories, and research projects, where they support search, data management, provenance tracking, and compliance with access or preservation policies.