Metadata
AKA: Contextual Data Needed to Make
Data Meaningful to Others
Check-in
• Any questions from last week?
Part of data lifecycle
• http://www.dat
aarchive.ac.uk/c
reatemanage/lifecycle
Learning Objectives
• Understand what metadata is
• Understand why metadata is important
• Identify how to locate applicable standards for
capturing and documenting metadata
• Understand varying practices associated with the
collection and sharing of metadata
• Identify an approach to creating metadata for a
project
What is Metadata?
• “Metadata 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” (NISO,
Understanding Metadata 2004;1).
• In plain English: metadata is used to record
information about data that has been collected.
• It’s essential to enabling the use and reuse of data.
Module 3: Metadata
You must have metadata to:
• find data from other researchers to support your
research;
• use the data that you find;
• help other professionals to find and use data from
your research; and
• use your own data in the future when you may
have forgotten details of the research.
(taken from the Marine Metadata Interoperability Project,
https://marinemetadata.org/guides/mdataintro)
Module 3: Metadata
Basic Types of Metadata
• Descriptive metadata
• Structural metadata
• Administrative metadata
All three should give you a (mostly) complete picture
of the object’s content, context and structure.
Module 3: Metadata
How Metadata Facilitates
Discoverability and Reuse
• Discoverability
• Accessibility
Module 3: Metadata
Some Sample Metadata
Standards
• Darwin Core
• Ecological Metadata Language (EML)
• Climate and Forecast (CF)
• List here:
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/metadatastandards
Module 3: Metadata
Examples of Standards
Discipline
Metadata Standard
Description
Biology
Darwin Core
A body of standards, including a
glossary of terms (in other contexts
these might be called properties,
elements, fields, columns, attributes,
or concepts) intended to facilitate the
sharing of information about
biological diversity by providing
reference definitions, examples, and
commentaries.
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/meta
data-standards/darwin-core
Ecology
EML - Ecological Metadata Language
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/meta
data-standards/eml-ecologicalmetadata-language
Earth Science
AgMES - Agricultural Metadata
Element Set
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/meta
data-standards/agmes-agriculturalmetadata-element-set
Ecological Metadata Language (EML)
is a metadata specification particularly
developed for the ecology discipline.
A semantic standard for description,
resource discovery, interoperability
and data exchange for different types
of agricultural information resources.
Example records
• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/query/acc.cgi?a
cc=GSE7763 (National Center for Biotechnology
Information database record)
• http://www.nj.gov/dep/gis/digidownload/metadat
a/statewide/hihaz.htm (FGDC example)
• What Dublin Core looks like:
http://jarmin.com/meta/dcore.html
Collecting and Sharing
Metadata
• Controlled vocabularies
• Technical standards
Module 3: Metadata
Controlled Vocabularies
Help take the guess work out of choosing between:
o a preferred spelling (donut vs doughnut)
o a scientific or popular term (western red cedar vs thuja
plicata)
o determining which synonym to use (automaton vs robot)
Metadata standards likely provide a best
practice recommendation for which CV and
standards to use
Module 3: Metadata
Technical Standards
Somewhat ambiguous descriptive term, but what we
mean is:
A common understanding of how you and your
group/field/university/etc. will record elements such
as time, date, format, etc.
Technical Standards
ISO 8601 technical standard:
•
•
•
•
YYYY (e.g. 1997)
YYYY-MM (e.g. 1997-07)
YYYY-MM-DD
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mmTZD (date plus hours, minutes
and seconds.. goes on to decimal fractions of a
second, etc.)
Module 3: Metadata
Approaches to Creating
Metadata
First, identify your standard.
Then, identify your
elements:
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Title
Creator
Identifier
Subject
Dates
Rights
Location
Methodology
Module 3: Metadata
o Sources
o Data processing, etc.
o See list here for other possible
elements and their definitions:
http://libraries.mit.edu/guides/su
bjects/datamanagement/metadata.html
Purpose of Metadata
To ensure:
• discovery
• use, and
• resuse of your research
Best Practices
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Always use an established metadata standard
Consistent data entry is important
Avoid extraneous punctuation
Avoid most abbreviations
Use templates and macros when possible
Extract pre-existing metadata
Keep a data dictionary
UW has metadata librarians available for
consultations
Module 3: Metadata
Sources for this Unit
What is metadata:
•
National Information Standards Organization (NISO). 2004. Understanding
Metadata. http://www.niso.org/publications/press/UnderstandingMetadata.pdf
•
Neiswender, C. 2010. "Introduction to Metadata." In The MMI Guides: Navigating
the World of Marine Metadata. http://marinemetadata.org/guides/mdataintro.
Accessed April 1, 2013.
Reuse and discoverability:
•
National Information Standards Organization (NISO). 2004. Understanding
Metadata. http://www.niso.org/publications/press/UnderstandingMetadata.pdf
•
Miller, Steven J. 2011. Metadata Resources: Selected Reference Documents, Web
Sites, and Readings: https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/mll/www/resource.html
Wikipedia page on “Metadata”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metadata
• http://www.library.illinois.edu/dcc/bestpractices/chapter_11_structuralmetadata.h
tml
Module 3: Metadata
Sources for this Unit
(cont’d)
Metadata standards:
•
Digital Curation Centre’s Disciplinary Metadata resource.
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/metadata-standards.
•
Hogrefe, K., Stocks, K. 2011. "The Importance of Metadata Standards." In The MMI Guides:
Navigating the World of Marine Metadata.
http://marinemetadata.org/guides/mdatastandards/stdimportance. Accessed March 22, 2013.
Other suggested readings
•
Introduction to Metadata: Setting the Stage (Getty Research Institute)
http://www.getty.edu/research/publications/electronic_publications/intrometadata/setting.htm
l
•
Documentation and Metadata (MIT Libraries):
http://libraries.mit.edu/guides/subjects/datamanagement/metadata.html
•
Version control and authenticity
http://data-archive.ac.uk/create-manage/format/versions
Module 3: Metadata