\label{Metadata_Description}

\index{Metadata}\label{What Is Metadata?}\emph{Metadata} is \emph{data about data}.
Metadata can often be thought
of as a label on some bit of information that can be useful to people or
computer programs trying to use the data. Without metadata, the person or
computer trying to use the original information would have to guess
what the original data is about.

When resources are published at least title, subject and keywords should be
provided so that the resource could be found easily.

For example, if you create a problem and
neglect to say in the title or subject of the problem what it is about, then
a human who wants to use that problem would have to read the problem itself
to see what it was about. This is much more difficult than just reading
a title. A computer trying to do the same thing would be out of luck;
it is too stupid to understand the problem statement at all.

Another example of metadata is the \texttt{\textless title\textgreater} tag of a web page, which usually shows
up in the title bar of the browser. That is information about the web page
itself and is not actually part of the web page. People use the title information
when they bookmark a page. Search engines
use it as a clue about the content of the web page.

