Metadata standard

Metadata

To ensure correct and proper use and interpretation of data, all users and owners of data should have a common understanding of the meaning or semantics of the data. To achieve this common understanding, a number of characteristics, or attributes of the data have to be defined, also known as metadata (ISO/IEC, 2003).

Metadata is often defined as data about data (e.g., NISO, 2004; Duval 2001, Cabinet Office, 2006). It is “structured information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use or manage an information resource” (NISO, 2004, p.1), especially in a distributed network environment like for example the internet or an organization (de Carvalho Moura et al., 1998). A good example of metadata is the cataloguing system found in libraries, which records for example the author, title, subject, and location on the shelf of a resource.

Metadata is usually categorized in three types (Lambe, 2007; NISO, 2004; NISO, 2007):

• Descriptive metadata describes an information resource for identification and retrieval through elements such as title, author, and abstract.
• Structural metadata documents relationships within and among objects through elements such as links to other components (e.g., how pages are put together to form chapters).
• Administrative metadata helps to manage information resources through elements such as version number, archiving date, and other technical information for purposes of file management, rights management and preservation.

Available metadata standards

Metadata elements grouped into sets designed for a specific purpose, e.g., for a specific domain or a particular type of information resource, are called metadata schemes. For every element the name and the semantics (the meaning of the element) are specified. Content rules (how content must be formulated), representation rules (e.g., capitalization rules), and allowed element values (e.g., from a controlled vocabulary) can be specified optionally. Some schemes also specify in which syntax the elements must be encoded, in contrast to syntax independent schemes. Many current schemes use Standards Generalized Mark-up Language (SGML) or XML to specify their syntax (NISO, 2004). Metadata schemes that are developed and maintained by standard organizations (such as ISO) or organizations that have taken on such responsibility (such as the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative) are called metadata standards.

Many different metadata schemes are being developed as standards across disciplines, such as library science, education, archiving, e-commerce, and arts. In the table below, an overview of available metadata standards is given.

Name	Focus	Description
DDI	Archiving and Social Science	The Data Documentation Initiative is an international effort to establish a standard for technical documentation describing social science data. A membership-based Alliance is developing the DDI specification, which is written in XML.
EAD	Archiving	Encoded Archival Description - a standard for encoding archival finding aids using XML in archival and manuscript repositories.
CDWA	Arts	Categories for the Description of a Work of Art is a conceptual framework for describing and accessing information about works of art, architecture, and other material culture.
VRA Core	Arts	Visual Resource Association – the standard provides a categorical organization for the description of works of visual culture as well as the images that document them.
Darwin Core	Biology	The Darwin Core is a metadata specification for information about the geographic occurrence of species and the existence of specimens in collections.
ONIX	Book industry	Online Information Exchange - international standard for representing and communicating book industry product information in electronic form.
CWM	Data warehousing	The main purpose of the Common Warehouse Metamodel is to enable easy interchange of warehouse and business intelligence metadata in distributed heterogeneous environments.
IEEE LOM	Education	Learning Objects Metadata - specifies the syntax and semantics of Learning Object Metadata.
CSDGM	Geographic data	Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata maintained by the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FDGC).
e-GMS	Government	The e-Government Metadata Standard defines the metadata elements for information resources to ensure maximum consistency of metadata across public sector organizations in the UK.
GILS	Government/ Organizations	The Global Information Locator Service defines an open, low-cost, and scalable standard so that governments, companies, or other organizations can help searchers find information.
TEI	Humanities, social sciences and linguistics	Text Encoding Initiative - a standard for the representation of texts in digital form, chiefly in the humanities, social sciences and linguistics.
NISO MIX	Images	NISO Metadata for Images in XML is an XML schema for a set of technical data elements required to manage digital image collections.
<indecs>	Intellectual property	Interoperability of Data in E-Commerce Systems addresses the need to put different creation identifiers and metadata into a framework to support the management of intellectual property rights.
MARC	Librarianship	MAchine Readable Cataloging - standards for the representation and communication of bibliographic and related information in machine-readable form.
METS	Librarianship	Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard - standard for encoding descriptive, administrative, and structural metadata regarding objects within a digital library.
MODS	Librarianship	Metadata Object Description Standard - is a schema for a bibliographic element set that may be used for a variety of purposes, and particularly for library applications.
XOBIS	Librarianship	XML Organic Bibliographic Information Schema - a XML schema for modeling MARC data.
PBCore	Media	PBCore is a Metadata & Cataloging Resource for Public Broadcasters & Associated Communities
MPEG-7	Multimedia	The Multimedia Content Description Interface MPEG-7 is a ISO/IEC standard and specifies a set of descriptors to describe various types of multimedia information and is developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group.
DC	Networked resources	Dublin Core - interoperable online metadata standard focused on networked resources.
DOI	Networked resources	Digital Object Identifier - provides a system for the identification and hence management of information ("content") on digital networks, providing persistence and semantic interoperability.
ISO/IEC 11179	Organizations	Standard that describes the metadata and activities needed to manage data elements in a registry to create a common understanding of data across organizational elements and between organizations.
ISO 15489	Records management	Standard for records management policies and procedures.
MoReq	Records management	A specification describing the MOdel REQuirements for the management of electronic records.
DIF	Scientific data sets	Directory Interchange Format - a descriptive and standardized format for exchanging information about scientific data sets.
SKOS	Web	Simple Knowledge Organization System - development by W3C of a simple yet powerful framework for expressing knowledge structures in a machine-understandable way, for use on the semantic web.

Sources: de Carvalho Moura et al. (1998), Bargemeyer and Gillman (2000), Baca (2002), NISO (2004), Suárez-Figueroa et al. (2004), Wrembel and Bębel (2005), Lambe (2007), NISO (2007), Taxonomy Warehouse (2007), NCSU Libraries (2008).

See also

• Metadata

References

• Baca, M. (ed) (2002), Metadata Standards, Library Technology Reports, 38, (5), 19-41.
• Bargemeyer, B.E. and Gillman, D.W. (2000), Metadata Standards and Metadata Registries: An Overview, paper presented at the International Conference on Establishment Surveys II, Buffalo, New York.
• Cabinet Office (2006), e-Government Metadata Standard Version 3.1, e-Government Unit, London.
• De Carvalho Moura, A.M., Machado Campos, M.L., Barreto, C.M. (1998), A survey on metadata for describing and retrieving Internet resources, World Wide Web, 1, (4), 221-240, Kluwer Academic Publishers.
• Duval, E. (2001), Metadata Standards, What, Who & Why, Journal of Universal Computer Science, 7, (7), 591-601, Springer.
• International Organization for Standardization (ISO) (2001a), Information and documentation - Records management – Part 1: General, ISO 15489-1:2001(E), International Organization for Standardization, Geneva.
• International Organization for Standardization (ISO) (2001b), Information and documentation - Records management – Part 2: Guidelines, ISO/TR 15489-2:2001(E), International Organization for Standardization, Geneva.
• International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) (2003), Information Technology - Metadata Registries (MDR) - Part 3: Registry metamodel and basic attributes, ISO/IEC 11179-3:2003(E), International Organization for Standardization, Geneva.
• International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) (2004), Information Technology - Metadata Registries (MDR) - Part 1: Framework, ISO/IEC 11179-1:2004(E), International Organization for Standardization, Geneva.
• Lambe, P. (2007), Organising Knowledge: Taxonomies, Knowledge and Organisational effectiveness, Chandos Publishing, Oxford.
• National Information Standards Organization (NISO) (2004), Understanding Metadata, NISO Press, Bethesda, USA.
• National Information Standards Organization (NISO) (2007), A Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections, 3rd ed., A NISO Recommended Practice, NISO, Baltimore, USA.
• NCSU Libraries (2008), Metadata Standards and Organization, [online], link, visited on 15-04-2008.
• Suárez-Figueroa, M.C., García-Castro, R., Gómez-Pérez, A., Palma, R., Nixon, L.J.B., Paslaru, E., Hartmann, J., Jarrar, M. (2004), D1.3.2 Identification of standards on metadata for ontologies, Knowledge Web Consortium, link, visited on 16-04-2008.
• Taxonomy Warehouse (2007), Standards and Initiatives, [online], link, visited on 15-04-2008.
• Wrembel, R. and Bębel, B. (2005), Metadata Management in a Multiversion Data Warehouse, in: Meersman, R., Tari (eds.), CoopIS/DOA/ODBASE 2005, LNCS 3761, 1314 - 1329, Springer-Verlag, Berlin.