Metadata

What is metadata?

Metadata is Info that refers to or superordinates other data. There are various standards for metadata. These include, for example, XMP , Exif , and IPTC .

Different uses of the term “metadata”

Metadata is essentially Infostored within a file (image) as a description of the image. This allows Infosuch as the photographer, time of capture, location, and copyright information to be stored.

Users of a Digital Asset Management system refer to the Info they add to the database, for example, about an image, as metadata. This data serves as a description of the asset (e.g., image, PDF, document), such as title, name, keywords, categories, geodata, etc.

Application examples

Metainfois often used with digital images. This allows, for example, the photographer of the image to be stored directly in the metainfo.

Another use case could be the direct transfer of metadata info an image database . This means that the metadata info read when the image is uploaded (metadata mapping) and stored in the database. This eliminates the need for manual entry.

Metadata can be embedded in a resource (e.g., HTML tags in a web page or metadata tags in digital images) or it can be recorded separately. This is the case, for example, when the objects being described are non-digital resources. In principle, the data can be kept separate for use in different applications.

In the context of databases, metadata has established itself as machine-readable descriptions of resources. Different formats and standards are used for different resources. The followingapiprovide an overview of the use of metadata, particularly in the field of cultural heritage.

Classes and schemas of metadata

Fundamentally, three classes of metadata are distinguished: technical, descriptive, and administrative metadata. However, a distinction is also made between application requirements, distinguishing between capture format, storage format, and exchange format.