What is Metadata?

I knew nothing about Metadata coming into this lesson and at first I found it all quite confusing. I now have a general idea of what it is, but it will require a re-reading of the articles to become more clear on all of its purposes. I think that what was initially holding me back from understanding the intricacies of Metadata was me not being able to see its relevance for digital resources in the library. When I think of digital resources, I think of , first of all, websites that will help students with their learning and research. It has been my experience over the years that when I find a list of websites on a particular topic there are often a few, if not many, dead links. This experience underlines that fact that websites are impermanent. It is for this reason that I don't see the need to spend a lot of time creating Metadata for a list of great websites that the students can use. Why go to all that trouble when the website could no longer be accessible by that URL in who knows how little time?

However, after reading one of Keith's posts where he explains how he writes Metadata on digital resources to include in the library catalogue, I can see how this would be helpful for the students. If a student is looking up information on Ancient Egypt, a list of books and a website or an online database will show up in his/her search results. Having the digital resources listed in the library catalogue will eliminate the additional step of checking out the library website for a list of websites provided by the teacher-librarian.

Something else that I realized when reading about Metadata, in the lesson material for the course, was that Metadata can be as simple or as complex as you would like it to be. It is simply another way to organize resources to make them easier for patrons to find.

I get it!!