New Project Metadata
Creating Metadata for Discovery
Providing good, detailed information about your file an effective way to make sure your file can be discovered in search. It's also useful for you as a steward of your file to record what you know about the file so that information doesn't get lost. But what information is important to record?
Required Elements
Only two elements are required in the DRS:
- Title
- A good title is a brief descriptive statement that is used to identify the resource and its content.
- Keyword
- Keywords are terms used to identify the content of the resource. Only one keyword is required, but three to five keywords are recommended.
Recommended Elements
- Creator names
- Creators are typically persons or entities credited with the creation of the resource being described, or contributed to its creation. The creator's name should always be included, if it is known. A file can have more than one creator, and the creator can be a person or an entity, like Northeastern University.
- Personal creator example: Cauchon, Brad
- Entity creator example (also known as a corporate creator): Marlan Studio of Photography
- Date
- An item's date can refer to the date the item was originally created or published.
- Example: This photo of a sand sculpture was taken in July 1985, though the exact date is not known.
- Description/Abstract
- The description or abstract should contain a succinct description of an item’s content, including any valuable information that could not be included in the title.
- Example of a thorough description: La Bernache
- Example of a typical description: Profile of Nonverbal Sensitivity
- Example of a typical abstract: Direct measurement of graphene adhesion on silicon surface by intercalation of nanoparticles
Other Possible Elements
- Notes
- Notes can be used to add additional information about an item.
- Provenance Note Example: Hand-drawn story
- Comments Note Example
- Application of geometric programming to the power systems economic dispatch optimization
- Publication Information
- If the item was published or distributed, the name and location of the publisher, and the publication date can be included in the record.
- Example: The Bitter Fruit of American Justice
- Rights Statements
- Rights statements can contain information about how the item can be used or reproduced, any licensing issues, or contact information for full access to the item.
- Example: Little people
- Subjects from a controlled vocabulary
- Rather than using simple keywords, you can opt to select terms from a controlled vocabulary. There are a few controlled vocabularies that cover a lot of types of material, including the Library of Congress subject headings and Getty's Art and Architecture Thesaurus. You can also create a controlled vocabulary for your own collection by creating a list of commonly used keywords that you select from and periodically add to when needed.