Usage of Metadata

Metadata is defined as data providing information about one or more other pieces of data, such as:



* Means of creation of the data
* Purpose of the data
* Time and date of creation
* Creator or author of data
* Placement on a computer network where the data was created
* Standards used

For example, a digital image may include metadata that describes how large the picture is, the color depth, the image resolution, when the image was created, and other data. A text document's metadata may contain information about how long the document is, who the author is, when the document was written, and a short summary of the document.

Metadata is data. As such, metadata can be stored and managed in a database, often called a registry or repository. However, it is impossible to identify metadata just by looking at it because a user would not know when data is metadata or just data.