Metasources

Metasources are information resources that provide information about other sources. In information science, metasources typically do not contain primary data themselves; instead, they collect, describe, and index metadata, provenance, and access points for a set of sources. They function as discovery, governance, and interoperability layers within heterogeneous data ecosystems, helping users find and evaluate relevant data and content.

Characteristics of metasources include the use of metadata schemas, support for cross-domain schema mappings, and the recording of provenance and licensing information. They often offer search interfaces and access pointers to underlying sources, rather than hosting the data themselves. Implementations include catalogs, registries, discovery layers, and metadata indices that can be queried to locate objects across multiple repositories.

Applications span several domains. In libraries and archives, metadata aggregators describe resources held by many institutions, facilitating discovery and access. In data governance and data management, data catalogs and metadata registries act as metasources to summarize datasets, schemas, lineage, and quality metrics. In scholarly communication, bibliographic indexes and DOI registries coordinate metadata about publications and datasets. In IT and cloud environments, service registries and configuration management databases serve as metasources for components, services, and configurations.

Benefits of metasources include improved discovery, enhanced metadata quality, and greater interoperability across systems. They also support governance and compliance by providing provenance, licensing, and access information.

Challenges involve maintaining metadata accuracy and timeliness, achieving semantic interoperability across domains, managing licensing and privacy considerations, and ensuring scalable update processes. The term metasource is not universally standardized, and practitioners may distinguish metasources from primary data sources by emphasizing metadata curation and resource discovery.