SUM09Q5

Summer 2009 Question 5
Metadata plays a crucial role in organizing and representing information resources. In your essay, address the following: a. What is metadata? (You should go beyond the simplistic definition: “data about data”). b. Why is metadata crucial to organizing and representing information objects? c. Some metadata schemes are being developed for specific disciplines. Identify a metadata scheme developed for a specific discipline, and using this scheme as an example discuss the strengths and weaknesses of having discipline specific metadata schemes. d. What developments in information technologies have made metadata crucial and why?