A guide to metadata by the Metadata Advisory
Group of the MIT Libraries
What is metadata?
Metadata
is a piece of information describing a resource. (Examples
of resources are books, web sites, and videos). Metadata
can describe a wide variety of information such as:
- the subject matter of the resource,
- the creators of the resource,
- the technical information to store and access the resource,
- and/or the legal rights to the resource.
Metadata
can be used to find, gather, and maintain resources over
long periods of time.
Why use metadata?
The consistent application of a descriptive national metadata
standard improves the user's search experience and makes information
retrieval within a single collection or across multiple collections
more reliable. Metadata is critical to the documentation and
maintenance of interrelationships between information resources.
Administrative, technical, and preservation metadata contributes
to the management of information resources and helps to ensure
their intellectual integrity both now and in the future.
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