Steven Miller opens chapter one by defining metadata as a broad generic term that encompasses

a wide variety of specific types of information that is either created or captured about
information resources (1). Metadata describes a certain object or resource. The definition that all
the readings for this week have given for metadata is it is simply data about data. All the
definitions have this idea at the core and explain that metadata relates to the actual material, but
is not that object. Miller continues to define the term throughout the chapter explaining that it
describes the content, format, and attributes of digital or analog objects and it helps the users to
identify and retrieve objects by identifying the content, context, and meaning of the resources
(Miller, 10). Metadata gives information about objects that is meaningful to users.

I liked that Anne J. Gilliland in the article Setting the Stage, opens the article by saying
metadata is widely used today, but understood and used in different ways by different
communities that design, create, describe, preserve, and use information systems and
resources. Metadata encompasses all of the needs mentioned above. It is created to describe and
help preserve digital resources, and to preserve the context of those resources. She goes on to say
that metadata provides context to the objects, especially images, which need more explanation
because there is no text. In the case of photographs, metadata can tell what the image is of, where
and when it was taken, what it is documenting, or in the case of data, how is it collected and
sorted, what is the data of, when was it taken? Metadata gives the actual object context and
allows the user to both find and understand more about the resource.

The post by Bonnie Swoger titled What is Metadata? A Christmas themed exploration
explained metadata as added information to help the new user understand what he or she was
looking at. Again, metadata is defined as value added information that describes, and makes
meaningful, data and objects. Another common theme among the readings is that metadata
should allow people other than the creator to find, use, and re-use data, like people being able to
understand and re-use data from Santas naughty/nice list.

My favorite definition of metadata is in Millers first chapter, which describes it as extra

baggage associated with any resource; to decide whether or not it is of valuea means by which
largely meaningless data may be transformed into information, interpretable and reusable
(Miller, 2). I like the baggage idea because it connects the actual object/resource/collection to the
information about it, and I picture the item carrying the metadata (like baggage) throughout its
life. If I had to explain the concept of metadata to somebody, I think I would start with the
definition above because it doesnt over complicate the concept and isnt vague, like saying
metadata is data about data, obviously. After taking so many LIS classes, that phrase makes
perfect sense to me, but whenever I try to explain metadata by saying its data about data, I get
weird confused looks. If I am explaining what metadata is in addition to describing it as extra
baggage attached to a resource, I would use Sowgers explanation that metadata is data that
describes an object. My definition would say metadata is information about and describes a
specific object, like a book or a photograph, but is not the actual book or photograph and it
allows people to discover, identify, and use those resources in an informed way.