ResourceBlog Article: Metadata! More Important Than Ever!

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Tuesday, 2nd March 2010

Metadata! More Important Than Ever!

by Laura Dawson

From the Column:

Whether it’s “semantic” search or a more traditional browsing hierarchy, search technologies rest on metadata. Tags, definitions, clarifications (“when we say ‘porcelain’ we mean fine china, not toilets”) are all necessary to guide users to the information they want.

[Snip]

In my career, I’ve seen lots of publisher-generated metadata. There’s a reason why NetRead, Eloquence, and other data-scrubbing services exist. There’s a reason why Ingram, Bowker, and Baker & Taylor have departments of data editors who normalize and standardize that data. There’s a reason why librarians spend countless hours re-cataloguing titles for WorldCat.

[Snip]

But good metadata IS publishers’ responsibility, fundamentally. They can outsource that responsibility, but ultimately it does all come back to the publishers. As our digital landscape explodes – as web search becomes not just one way but THE way readers find what’s next on their reading lists – metadata only becomes more important.

Access the Complete Column by Laura Dawson

Note from ResourceShelf: Placing an item into the database (independent of type) with quality metadata makes it easier for the end user, librarian, customer, etc. to get it back out of the database in a timely and efficient manner. In some cases good metadata plus a good database can allow the searcher to learn enough about the contents of a book/eBook, dvd, etc. to make a decision about (do or don't I want it?) the material without having to touch the actual item. Finally, we all know that for many users, it the item is not accessible on the first page of results (especially when web searching) it might as well be invisible. Only so many items can be in the first five or ten results. In many cases, the Invisible Web of 2010 is as large or larger than the one Gary and Chris Sherman wrote about nearly nine years ago.

Source: Digital Book World

Category:

Search News (ResourceShelf)

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