metadatadata

Metadatadata refers to metadata about metadata, also described as meta-metadata. It encompasses records that describe the characteristics, provenance, quality, and management of metadata themselves. The term is used to clarify how metadata are created, stored, and evaluated, and to support governance and interoperability in data systems, libraries, archives, and data portals.

The scope of metadatadata includes information about metadata schemas and standards, such as which fields exist, their semantics, and versioning. It also covers provenance details—who created or edited the metadata, when changes occurred, and under what workflows. Version history, encoding formats, and relationships between metadata sets (for example, an original metadata record and its derived or translated versions) are typical components. Quality indicators, completeness checks, and validation results are commonly included to facilitate trust and reuse.

Standards and practices relevant to metadatadata often focus on documenting the metadata lifecycle. This can involve meta-descriptions of preservation metadata, cataloging metadata, or metadata registries that describe schemas and mappings between them. Examples include using PREMIS to record preservation-related metadata about other metadata, and METS or MODS to organize and describe metadata structures. Registries or metadata catalogs may store meta-level information about metadata standards, schemas, and profiles to aid discovery and interoperability.

Applications and challenges. Metadatadata supports data governance, metadata quality control, and interoperability across systems by making metadata more transparent and auditable. Challenges include keeping meta-information up to date, handling multiple overlapping standards, ensuring consistent provenance, and avoiding administrative overhead that can hinder data stewardship.

See also: metadata, metadata quality, provenance, data governance, metadata registry, metadata standards.