Cataloger's Learning Workshop (Week 3)

The Library of Congress in Washington, DC put out an article on Metadata entitled Metadata Basics: Metadata Development Overview. The definition of Metadata according to NISO is: structured information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use or manage an information resource. Metadata is often called data about data or information about information.

The American Library Association (ALA) gives another definition about Metadata: structured, encoded data that describe characteristics of information-bearing entities to aid in the identification, discovery, assessment, and management of the described entities.

Here are a few points taken from the Metadata Basics reading:

1. MARC was developed by the Library of Congress in the 1960's to represent bibliographic descriptions and relationship among data. It does not do well with management needs or evaluative needs.
2. Electronic metadata can be used for "any area that shows a demand for electronic resource discovery and sharing, a metadata standard can be developed or proposed." The resources used to describe electronic metadata consist of: bibliographical objects (MARC), archival inventories and registers (EAD), geospatial objects (FGDC), museum and visual resources (CDWA, VRA, CIMI), education materials (LOM), software implementation (COBRA). There are many other forms of metadata and different standards to follow for each--they are not limited to these.
   
3. These are some examples of what metadata looks like in different online collections. The first one is a library bibliographic catalog from KentLINK OPAC, which displayed the metadata in a MARC format. Two digital collections display their collections in different metadata databases: The Worthington Memory collection in Ohio operates a Dublin Core record and the Alexandria Digital Library (go to the bullet about the ADL and click on the standard XML, it is a cached PDF file) uses standard XML.
4. CDWA (Categories for the Description of Workd of Art) is a metadata standard avaible for research on the Getty. To View: under "catalog examples" click on any item. Compare the user-view record with the fielded format record. It is a good example of how many fields need to be filled in and how many seemingly redundant fields. Note that there are five or so under the "Photograph" example of variations of the artist name.
5. Metadata performs several functions. It is a resource discovery allowing searches to be performed to find sources by relevant criteria, give location information of objects and to identify resources. It is a way of organizing e-resources as well as a way to facilitate interoperability between systems allowing for cross-system searches. It is also for digital identification by giving standard number to the digital object (ie. ISBN) as well as useful for archiving and preservation, which ensures resources will survive and be accessible in the future.
6. It is important in metadata to use standardized vocabularies such as the DCMI type supplied by Dublin Core. It is a general list of approved term that can be used as the RESOURCE TYPE element. It is used to identify the genre of a specific resource.
7. There are also thesauri available to aid with the creation of metadata. The Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) is a particularly relevant source for my field. These are also particularly helpful in order to aid in data retrieval.
   
8. The Best Practice Guides aid with guidelines to create field definitions, how to best catalog metadata and are a vital source for those working with digital metadata. The Consortium for the Computer Interchange of Museum Information (CIMI) has a Guide to Best Practice: Dublin Core, which is considered a standard of information for museum professionals dealing with digital metadata.

Metadata is complicated and there are several different schemas and standards to approach creating a database full of metadata. Some of these examples have proved helpful with showing examples of the field, but the best way to learn is to practice and to make sure to always pay close attention to detail. Good metadata is useful; bad metadata is lost forever.