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Metadata

Metadata is data about data. It gives context, background information, description and navigation information about data. In this, we will explore two types of metadata. Descriptive and structural metadata. Descriptive metadata describes the data. It gives an explanation to what the data is about, it gives context to what that data shows. For example, going to see details about a photo taken on a smartphone or most modern cameras, we can see the photos title/name, the date and time it was taken, the file type and size, type of camera, the lens, exposure, if flash was used, location data or not and so on. These information give description to what the photo is and show the details to give context. Descriptive metadata can be used in many different ways. As the example, the details of the photo can be used to replicate the photo, get the location information and explore more about the location, compare how different exposure levels affect a photo. Another example of descriptive metadata is data about a book, article, newspaper, video, movie, and documentaries. The title, author, date, publisher, producer, sponsor and information about that particular writing or media can be used for citation, research, and archives.

On the other hand, structural metadata is “containers of data and indicates how compound objects are put together, for example, how pages are ordered to form chapters. It describes the types, versions, relationships and other characteristics of digital materials.” Structural metadata can be used to give description about how a data is structured. For example is data with a table, it is important to know how to locate the data within the table such that the metadata will have data on how the table is set up. It could also contain information about how to locate each data within the table. Such metadata can be used for making changes to the actual data, reading the information and for file types such as CSV files, it gives a flexibility to whether see the data in long comma separated string format or in more structured table format. Especially when working with a large datasets, structural metadata becomes crucial because it helps to make sure the information does not get out of hand and easier to work with.

This page references:

The Cat Metadata This is a picture of a cat. Which has nothing to do with metadata but on the left side it contains a metadata of the image. It shows the title, author, date, file, camera, lense, exposure, flash and the location information about the image. The data being the cat photo, the metadata and the detailed information about the photo. A simple use of the metadata of this photo could be, we can figure out where this photo was exactly taken, how and when. Also see how different devices/cameras perform under different light conditions and exposure levels. The comparison can help make better informed decisions about what device to use.
Mastering advanced metadata management This image, mastering advanced metadata management shows the flow of metadata structure and how it should be structured such that it is easier to manage. It gives three steps to advance metadata management.First understanding the data. Having no or limited understanding of the data will lead to a wrong structure of metadata. No two datas will be identical, each data will be different from the other such that the metadata should describe the data correctly. For that understanding the data is important. Second, use accurate description. After understanding the data, it is important to describe it in the most accurate way possible.The accuracy should be consistent. Which leads to the 3rd point ensuring consistency. If metadata is not consistent, it will create a misinterpretation of the data and possibly malfunction such that the consistency of the metadata is crucial to ensure the data functions properly and it is usable.
5 Minute Metadata - What is metadata? This video explains what my topic is, metadata is and the two types of metadata. It explains what structural metadata and descriptive metadata are. It gives examples about how they are used in different types of datas such as photos and table grids. It defines descriptive metadata as a data that explains who made the file, when it was made, where it was made and how big it is. On the other hand it defines structural metadata as a data that applies to multiple files and it helps to interpret data by describing what fields are used in the data and it may contain descriptive metadata.
Book Shelves This image shows the analog style of metadata. Before computers and cloud computing came to play, metadata was stored manually in analog format. The image shows a cabinet with a bibliography of books by alphabet. Each drawer contains index cards with a book bibliography on them which then the books can be located from the library shelves. The cards contain the title, author, and date of the book as well as the location of the book in the library. Then the librarian or the users of the library use the index cards to look for the book they wish to get.