What Is Metadata?

Date First Published: 8th December 2023

Topic: Computer Systems

Subtopic: Computer Software

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty: Medium

Difficulty Level: 4/10

CONTENTS

Types Of Metadata
History

Learn about what metadata is in this article.

Metadata is a type of data that gives information about other data to help understand the structure, nature, and context. This makes the data easier to find, search for, and reuse and is both readable to humans and computer systems. Metadata is not usually visible when viewing a file, but it can be displayed by programs when needed.

For example, digital images may include metadata, such as the date and time the photo was taken, location, resolution, colour depth, shutter speed and other data. Metadata can also appear in HTML files to provide information about the webpage, including the title, description, keywords, and directives that instruct a web browser on how to display the page contents and help search engines to understand the content of the page.

Types Of Metadata

Different types of metadata include:

Administrative metadata - Allows administrators to impose rules and restrictions regarding data access and user permissions.
Descriptive metadata - Identifies specific characteristics of data, such as titles, keywords, authors, etc.
Statistical metadata - Describes data that allows users to properly interpret and use statistics found in reports and surveys.
Reference metadata - Information about the contents and quality of statistical data.
Legal metadata - Provides information about the creator, copyright holder, and public licensing.

History

The first description of "meta data" for computer systems is noted by MIT's Center for International Studies experts David Griffel and Stuart McIntosh in 1967: "In summary then, we have statements in an object language about subject descriptions of data and token codes for the data. We also have statements in a meta language describing the data relationships and transformations, and ought/is relations between norm and data."