What is...Metadata?
Literally, metadata is information about other information, and is an essential part of the digitization process. It is most useful when organized into structured metadata so that like fields from different files are easy to compare to one another. For example, if you look at a photograph collection in CONTENTdm, you will see the same fields for each photograph. Fields like the title or description will change with the photograph, but the collection name, and the file formats will remain constant. There will also be subjects that will repeat between some photographs in the collection, but not all. They may even be used across multiple collections. By keeping the subject in a specific place it can be used to link photographs across collections.
Above are examples of metadata collected for images from the same collection, in this case the Audubon Park Commission Photograph Collection. If you click on the photographs of animals above you will be taken to them on CONTENTdm, our Digital Asset Management System, if you click on the text below the photographs you can see the metadata magnified. Sometimes more information is available for one record than another; this is why the giraffe has a description and date, both of which were taken from what was written on the back of the photograph.
As mentioned above, Subjects can also be used to locate images from across collections. Here are images of children at play linked by the subject “children” between a mayoral collection and a city agency collection: Mayor Ernest N. Morial Photograph Collection and New Orleans Recreation Department Scrapbook Photographs. Click on the photographs above to be taken to Contentdm, or click on the metadata to view closeups.
Learn More:
Society of American Archivists: Dictionary of Archives Terminology
ARMA International : Tips from the Trenches