Metadata is a term used to describe data about data. It provides essential information about other data, making it easier to track, organize, and understand. There are different types of metadata, including structural metadata, which outlines the structure of database objects, and guide metadata, used to find specific items through keywords. The categories of metadata include technical, business, and process metadata. It is used in various fields like telecommunications for traffic analysis, in governments for digital monitoring, and in improving user experiences on websites. Standards for metadata are set by organizations like ANSI and ISO. Specific applications of metadata can be found in photography, video, and geospatial data. Metadata can either be created manually or automated, depending on the items or data objects in question.
Metadata (or metainformation) is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data itself, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including:
- Descriptive metadata – the descriptive information about a resource. It is used for discovery and identification. It includes elements such as title, abstract, author, and keywords.
- Structural metadata – metadata about 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.
- Administrative metadata – the information to help manage a resource, like resource type, permissions, and when and how it was created.
- Reference metadata – the information about the contents and quality of statistical data.
- Statistical metadata – also called process data, may describe processes that collect, process, or produce statistical data.
- Legal metadata – provides information about the creator, copyright holder, and public licensing, if provided.
Metadata is not strictly bound to one of these categories, as it can describe a piece of data in many other ways.
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