What is Metadata?

Some call me the Metadata Maven! 

Here's why I love data about data.

Metadata! What is it good for? More about metadata

Every aspect of libraries and archives is based upon the creation and management of metadata. Your own world of objects and information can use the same principles. 

What is metadata? One of my favorite expressions is, "Metadata is a love note to the future." Emily Chicorli describes it properly: 

The classic definition is: “metadata is data about data”. Our digital collections, for example, 

contain data (i.e. information) about the objects, which can include elements such as the 

creator of an object, the date or date range the object was created, the publisher and so forth. 

These fields (date, creator and so on) is data (information) about a particular object, document, 

photograph or object. 

You can think of metadata as the envelope around a thing. The letter is the thing; the envelope is what gets the letter in the hands of the recipient. 

You can think of metadata as a card from a library catalog: it tells you a bit about the book you are seeking (reaching it alphabetically by author, title, or subject) and where to find it on the shelf. 

You can think of metadata as a scrawl on a cardboard box: you'll look for your shampoo in a box marked "bathroom stuff" instead of "school papers" when the movers have piled all your boxes in one towering stack. 

How Do We Manage Metadata? 

Metadata can be managed in a list, a filing system (a filing cabinet of folders, or a set of folders on a computer), on a website (Box, Sharepoint, Drive, or a shopping site like Amazon, any Drupal-driven site), a content management system (like a online library catalog, Veeva, Documentum, or software like Photo Mechanic.) 

What matters most is that the metadata work for the user. It should be easy to understand, logical for the brain operating it, and standard enough that its principles apply to one more than one type of information. It might be visual, text-driven. It might work based on browsing or searching. It might be vast, like WorldCat, which holds information about the holdings of libraries worldwide, or brief and simple, like a list of your favorite recipes and where each can be found in your collection of cookbooks. 

The love note points to something a user wants to visit again and again, and to enjoy getting there.

How does data connect us to wisdom? 

Another concept I love to ponder is this:

Data without any experience or context applied to it is not very useful. (The number 3 means nothing until we are counting something.)  It needs to be understood in relation to other data or concepts in order to become information. (Three refrigerators might be two many; three tomatoes isn't enough to make a pot of sauce for lasagna.) Information, too, needs context and usually application in order to become knowledge, a trusted source or way of doing things, which can be repeated, relied upon, made standard and teachable. 

Wisdom, as we know, cannot be taught. It can only be gained through experience, and the accumulation of knowledge, usually in many different areas, which allow a person to have insights into any situation which can help them navigate, survive, and understand or make sense of it. 

Humans are made to make sense, or make meaning. 

Metadata helps us make meaning by creating paths and ways of finding which will work for us, and help us find things in relation to one another, even when we might not be sure what we are seeking.