Annotation of loncom/html/adm/help/tex/Metadata_Description.tex, revision 1.6
1.2 bowersj2 1: \label{Metadata_Description}
1.1 bowersj2 2:
1.4 bisitz 3: \index{Metadata}\label{What Is Metadata?}\emph{Metadata} is \emph{data about data}.
4: Metadata can often be thought
1.1 bowersj2 5: of as a label on some bit of information that can be useful to people or
6: computer programs trying to use the data. Without metadata, the person or
1.3 vandui11 7: computer trying to use the original information would have to guess
1.4 bisitz 8: what the original data is about.
9:
10: When resources are published at least title, subject and keywords should be
11: provided so that the resource could be found easily.
12:
13: For example, if you create a problem and
1.1 bowersj2 14: neglect to say in the title or subject of the problem what it is about, then
15: a human who wants to use that problem would have to read the problem itself
1.4 bisitz 16: to see what it was about. This is much more difficult than just reading
1.3 vandui11 17: a title. A computer trying to do the same thing would be out of luck;
1.1 bowersj2 18: it is too stupid to understand the problem statement at all.
19:
1.6 ! raeburn 20: Another example of metadata is the \texttt{$<$title$>$} tag of a web page, which usually shows
1.3 vandui11 21: up in the title bar of the browser. That is information about the web page
22: itself and is not actually part of the web page. People use the title information
23: when they bookmark a page. Search engines
1.1 bowersj2 24: use it as a clue about the content of the web page.
25:
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