Metadata is commonly described as "data about data." While easy to remember, this definition is far too vague to be useful. The definitions below provide better explanationsin plain English.
Definition from the National Information Standards Organization (NISO)
"Metadata is structured information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use, or manage an information resource."
Definition from Steven Miller, Information and Metadata Lecturer
“Extra baggage associated with any resource that enables a real or potential user to find that resource and to determine value…”
Definition from Karen Coyle, Digital Librarian and Author of Coyle's InFormation
“Metadata is constructed, constructive, and actionable.”
- Constructed - a man-made artifice, not naturally occurring
- Constructive - serving a useful purpose, to solve some problem
- Actionable - can be acted upon, processed by humans and machines
Staff and faculty in nearly every domain of the campus community are producing, manipulating, or analyzing data and digital objects as part of their day-to-day work. Because ofthis increase in data production and use, a need has been identifiedto describe data in order to make the data discoverable in repositories, understandable in context, and reusable by others.
This guide provides a basic introduction to tools, resources, standards, and support for metadata and data documentation. For additional information, or to schedule a consultation on metadata and data documentation, contact Angelina Crowe, Metadata Specialist, Carnegie Mellon University Libraries.
