metadatafiler

MetadataFiler is a software concept that provides a unified approach to storing, organizing, and querying metadata about digital assets. It acts as a metadata registry and indexing layer that can attach descriptive, technical, rights, and provenance information to files, independent of their native formats. The goal is to improve discoverability, governance, and interoperability across tools and systems.

Core features include extraction and normalization of metadata from multiple formats (XMP, EXIF, IPTC, Dublin Core, and JSON-LD in embedded sidecar files), support for custom schemas, versioning, and provenance tracking. MetadataFiler may store metadata in a dedicated database or use a graph or document store, and exposes APIs for read/write operations and search. It can operate as a local library, a service, or both.

Typical use cases include digital libraries, media asset management, research data management, and archival projects. Examples of workflows: ingesting assets, automatic extraction, enrichment, indexing, search, and export of metadata alongside assets. Interoperability is guided by mappings to standards such as Dublin Core or schema.org to facilitate cross-system sharing. Limitations include potential overhead, the need for governance to avoid conflicting metadata, and the dependency on consistent metadata standards across tools.