The information environment is complex and ever-changing, with a variety of issues having influence on access to information resources. Author Philip Hider, Head of the School of Information Studies at Charles Sturt University, Australia, describes and explains why metadata plays a key role in facilitating access and retrieval of information resources.
Metadata is defined as any structured data that can be processed by computers, as well as structured data that can be used by non-computerised information retrieval systems. Hider looks at four aspects of metadata: elements, values, format and transmission. He examines traditional practices in metadata creation used by information agencies such as libraries and museums, but also new approaches to metadata resulting from the latest developments in digital technology.
The book examines the rationale for metadata creation and the relative importance of various metadata attributes. Hider introduces the more commonly recorded metadata elements which support the four user tasks identified by functional requirements for bibliographic models (FRBR): finding, selecting, identifying, and obtaining information resources. To these he adds navigating, which encompasses the collocation of like resources.
One strong point of this book is the author's insistence on the need for quality metadata. Hider points out that the effectiveness of elements, values and protocols varies in different information contexts and depends on the characteristics of users, technology, resources and other factors. Effective metadata for Hider is metadata that fulfils its purpose well, and he underlines that metadata creators have to establish and maintain functionality, comprehensiveness, accuracy, clarity and consistency of metadata. He introduces the reader to mechanisms which can improve and assure the quality of metadata, such as vocabulary control, and lays out some principles of best practice, including cost-benefit analysis. Hider recognises that standards improve the consistency of resource description and facilitate sharing of metadata, and offers a good overview of available standards, their history, structure and usage. There is also a section on the mechanisms and arrangements that enable systems to share metadata. Here again, the quality of metadata is a key. For metadata to be shared it has to be either compliant with a standard or converted at the time of sharing. If metadata has not been created in compliance with a standard in the first place, a great deal of editing may be required at the time of converting.
Three different approaches to metadata creation are canvassed – metadata created by computer analysis of content, metadata created by end-users, and metadata created by professionals. All these approaches have merits and shortcomings, and in Hider's view, all have to be embraced. He calls for more research on how they can be combined, particularly end-user folksonomies and controlled vocabularies. In his opinion, any universal model of metadata must take into account both the context and processes of user-system interaction.
Hider has brought us a well-written overview of trends in cataloguing and metadata creation. Each chapter includes references and a list of suggested additional readings for everybody who would like to pursue the topic further. This volume will be particularly useful to library and information science students. Library professionals, as well as everybody who is involved or interested in the creation of metadata, can also learn from it. To quote the author, “Metadata works only if people understand and use it.” This book will certainly help us to achieve a better understanding and better use of metadata.
