Metadata and Digital Library Systems

Metadata, literally “data about data”, is an increasingly ubiquitous term that is understood in different ways by the diverse professional communities that design, create, describe, preserve, and use information systems and resources. Whether in the traditional context or in the internet context, the key purpose of metadata is to facilitate and improve the retrieval of information. Cultural heritage and information professionals such as museum registrar, library cataloguers, and archival processors are increasingly applying the term metadata to the value-added information that they create to arrange, describe, track and otherwise enhance access to information objects. Library metadata development has been first and foremost about providing intellectual and physical access to content. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the critical roles that different types of metadata plays in the development of information and record-keeping systems. The technical setup, functional aspects, applications and challenges of metadata are elaborated in detail. For librarians, information scientists, students and anyone dealing with digital library collections, this work is destined to become an authoritative reference tool.