How can you handle metadata for photographs and audio recordings?

1 Why metadata matters

Metadata can significantly enhance the value and usability of your digital collections. It provides descriptive information about the content, creator, date, location, and format of your digital objects, making them easier to find and understand. Additionally, it provides technical information about the file size, resolution, compression, and encoding of your digital objects, as well as administrative information about the rights, permissions, provenance, and preservation of your digital objects. Lastly, it offers structural information about the relationships, hierarchy, and sequence of your digital objects. All of these factors make digital objects easier to access, display, manage, protect, navigate and interpret.

2 How to choose metadata standards

Metadata standards are sets of rules and guidelines that define the elements, syntax, and semantics of metadata. They can help ensure consistency, interoperability, and quality of your metadata. However, there are many standards to choose from depending on your needs and goals. For instance, you can use general standards such as Dublin Core, MODS, or METS; specific standards like EXIF or IPTC for photographs, or BWF or XMP for audio recordings; domain standards such as VRA Core or CDWA for visual arts, or EAD or DACS for archives; and even local standards like custom schemas or vocabularies that apply to your own organization or project.

3 How to create metadata records

Metadata records are the units of information that store and display the metadata for each digital object. These records can have different formats and structures, depending on the metadata standard used. For instance, XML (Extensible Markup Language) is suitable for creating structured and hierarchical metadata records that can be validated and exchanged across systems and platforms, while CSV (Comma-Separated Values) is ideal for creating flat and tabular metadata records that can be edited and imported using spreadsheet software. Additionally, embedded metadata can be used to create integrated metadata records stored within the digital objects themselves, such as in the header or footer of a file.

4 How to manage metadata workflows

Metadata workflows are the processes and procedures that govern the creation, maintenance, and update of metadata records and can help optimize the efficiency, accuracy, and timeliness of your metadata. However, various challenges and trade-offs can arise when creating metadata workflows, such as determining the quantity and quality of metadata to create for each digital object. Additionally, there is a need to balance automation with human intervention in terms of generating, extracting, or enriching metadata, as well as deciding how much manual review and editing is necessary. Furthermore, it is important to consider both standardization and customization of metadata when deciding how to follow standards and best practices while also adapting the metadata to specific needs and contexts.