Metadata services

The Open University Library provides Metadata Services which are available to all Open University staff and projects.

What is metadata?

• Describe, structure, process and manage information. Metadata is all around us, from information on food labels to television listings in magazines.
• Improve search efficiency and aid the identification of resources for reuse.
• Allow access to resources that are not compatible with natural language or full text searching, e.g. images, Java applets, and multimedia.
• Allow users to browse and search using conceptual terms that may not appear in the text of the resource but are implicit or relevant to it.
• Allow search engines to weight results, so users get the most relevant results first. Pages are ranked higher in the search results if metadata is present.

Learn about Metadata is an introductory guide to what metadata is, and its importance within the university.

Why is this significant to the Open University?

The Open University has been identifying its metadata needs, to help increase interoperability, retrieval and reuse of its assets. These needs have been considered from the view point of its systems and the requirements of external partners. The University is developing an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system. This will allow it to identify and manage its assets and allow easy delivery of resources to the Open University Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).

What metadata services does the Open University Library give to staff?

• Information and help on what metadata is and what it means for the university
• Information on university metadata policies and help and advice on compliance
• Advice and help to teams, groups and projects on metadata standards applicable to their work
• Advice on metadata development at a strategic level, through representation on university committees and working groups

Contact the Metadata Development Manager for further information.

Further reading and resources

Whitelaw, L. (2006) Learn About Metadata

Weller, M. and Pegler, C. (2004) Metadata, for an introduction to the metadata written for OU courses.