3 common types of metadata

• Descriptive
  • Metadata that describes a piece of data and can be used to identify it at a later point in time
• Structural
  • Metadata that indicates how a piece of data is organized and whether it is part of one, or more than one, data collection
• Administrative
  • Metadata that indicates the technical source of a digital asset

目的

Data analysts use metadata to combine data, evaluate data, and interpret a database.

Elements of metadata

Before looking at metadata examples, it is important to understand what type of information metadata typically provides.

Title and description

Tags and categories

Who created it and when

Who last modified it and when

Who can access or update it

Examples of metadata

Emails

When an email is sent or received, there is lots of visible metadata such as the subject line, the sender, the recipient, and the date and time sent. There are also hidden metadata that includes server names, IP addresses, HTML format, and software details.

Metadata repository

A database specifically created to store metadata

• Describe the state and location of the metadata
• Describe the structures of the tables inside