Introduction to metadata,

摘要

This text, first published in 1998, and now re-issued as a revised third edition, provides some insightful and thought-provoking facts and views on the general subject of metadata. To a lay reader who is completely new to the subject it might come as somewhat of a surprise to realise that metadata is something created by everyone on a daily basis when they describe an object or a concept in oral or written form. Of course, this is a simpler concept to grasp in relation to the analogue as opposed to the digital world. An analogue object can be described comprehensively in a fairly brief manner. For example, a letter can be described in terms of the date and subject of the text, and the materials used in its creation, e.g. pen and paper. On the other hand, a born-digital item, such as a file containing text in a human language, requires more comprehensive metadata about the object, including a description of the contents of the document (a letter, essay, memo, etc. on a particular subject), the file format, date of, and software used in its creation, file size and location, as well as other information required for present and future security and accessibility.