Metadata

Metadata, as mentioned above, is data about data, documenting technical information about a digital file-everything from the basics such as creation, date, and file format to detailed information on codecs, compression, etc.

While the documentation strategies above are being developed within the art world, metadata is equally important to libraries, archives, businesses, government agencies-any entity dealing with critical information in digital form. It is groups like these that have driven metadata standards and schema.

However, in the world of digital art:

Keep in mind that apart from format and hardware obsolescence, human error and poor management of files is the largest risk factor in preserving digital works. It is essential to capture data about the files and their location carefully and consistently in order to ensure their longevity.

In order to obtain thorough documentation of the diverse, intricate, and interdependent components that make up these works, it is essential to make an item-level inventory of each moving-image file or audio file, as well as the software, hardware, and operating system needed to run the file. Of equal importance, each component record associated with the artwork must be related to one another in the database in order to identify all parts of a single work. This can be done by creating a unique identifier for the work and using variants of this number for each of the individual parts.

A "work" record describing the content of the work should be created, with individual item records for the individual files linked to it. Separate item-level records for files are necessary because digital files will have different technical metadata and creation information. If there are several versions of digital files (for example, working and final files), the data record must identify which file is the final or "authentic" file to be used in re-creating or displaying the work.

In general, metadata can be divided into four general categories: descriptive (describing the content of the work); technical (describing the technical creation of the file and requirements for playing the file); preservation; and administrative (includes how the work was acquired and rights information).

The lists of fields below will give an idea of what each category entails-and just how much data about a file it is necessary to capture.