Describing Digital Images
Metadata Theory and Practice
Metadata issues must be given a high priority during the design of projects or at the outset of a program to ensure information about the collections can be found by users, shared with other institutions and managed over the life of the object. Metadata creation for digital objects can reuse preexisting descriptive information from its physical counterpart, such as accession records, finding aids or catalog records. For some digital objects, metadata creation will need to be created from scratch. There are numerous metadata schema; therefore, the institution will need to select the schema most appropriate to the collection, audience and institution. The most common metadata schemes include the following sets of information, with some overlap:
Descriptive |
Metadata that describes the intellectual content of a resource and used for the indexing, discovery and identification of a digital resource. |
Administrative |
Metadata that includes management information about the digital resource, such as ownership and rights management. |
Structural |
Metadata that is used to display and navigate digital resources and describes relationships between multiple digital files, such as page order in a digitized book or diary. |
Technical |
Metadata that describes the features of the digital file, such as resolution, pixel dimensions and hardware. The information is critical for migration and long-term sustainability of the digital resource. |
The Dublin Core metadata standard has been widely implemented, containing 16 elements. Different communities have developed Dublin Core profiles for their unique needs, adding elements to reflect those unique needs. Another standard which may be applicable to your program is VRA Core 4.0, a data standard for the cultural heritage community that was developed by the Visual Resources Association http://www.vraweb.org/projects/vracore4/index.html
The CDP’s Dublin Core Metadata Best Practices provides guidance in using Dublin Core, in a collaborative environment http://www.bcr.org/cdp/best/dublin-core-bp.pdf
