Metadata

This term describes data about data. Metadata can be defined as structural information that describes or explains other information resources. Metadata enriches repositories to be more visible and makes it easier to discover and harvest the contained resources.
There are three main types of metadata

• Descriptive metadata– describes the content of the materials
• Administrative/ technical metadata– describes the characteristics of the materials, such as format, time of creation etc.
• Structural metadata – information that describes the logical flow of the materials

 
There are several types of metadata standards such as Text Encoding Initiatives (TEI), Metadata Encoding Transmission Standards (METS) and Dublin Core (DC).
It is worth noting that the Dublin Core metadata standard is a standardized set of metadata fields used to describe a physical or digital object in a digital library or repository. To streamline interaction between institutional repositories or library systems, the Dublin Core metadata standard is often utilized. The Dublin Core is the simplest among the metadata standards.