Defining and Creating Metadata for Digital Resources

Abstract

With the unprecedented growth of digital resources, it is anticipated that metadata will become increasingly more important for supporting resource discovery in digital libraries. But the co-existence of multiple and sometimes conflicting definitions of metadata can easily create confusion as to what qualifies as metadata. Similarly, the few models that have been proposed to help practitioners create metadata have a tendency to overlook the sequence that important tasks should occur. This paper reviews the definitions of metadata and clarifies the use of the term within the library community. It also discusses different metadata creation models and problems identified in these models indicate the need for further research in that area. The paper concludes by suggesting a five-phase approach that takes into account the limitations of other models proposed so far.