metaadat

Metaadat, or metadata, is data that describes other data. It provides information necessary to identify, locate, interpret, manage and preserve a resource. Metadata can describe physical items such as a photograph, digital files, databases, or web pages, as well as abstract resources like datasets or multimedia collections.

There are several categories of metadata: descriptive metadata enables discovery and identification (title, author, keywords, abstract); structural metadata describes how the components of a resource are arranged (page order, file formats, relationships between parts); administrative metadata covers provenance, rights, access conditions, and preservation information.

Metadata is often encoded according to standards or schemas to ensure interoperability. Examples include Dublin Core for general resources; schema.org for web content; IPTC and EXIF for images; XMP for embedding metadata in digital media. Metadata can be embedded within a file, stored in a separate catalog, or provided by a data repository or service.

Uses of metadata include supporting search and discovery, resource management, rights administration, and long-term preservation. It also enables data exchange between systems and improves data quality through validation and curation. The metadata lifecycle includes creation or capture, maintenance, quality assurance, and preservation.

Challenges in metadata management include ensuring consistency, accuracy, completeness, and privacy. As digital ecosystems grow, metadata standards and tooling continue to evolve to support better interoperability and automated metadata extraction.