Metadata and Its Applications in the Digital Library

Book excerpt: "While the concept of metadata predates the Internet, worldwide interest in its standards and practices is directly linked to the increase in electronic publishing and digital libraries. Yet questions remain, such as: What form should these standards take? Who gets to develop them? How will they do so and how, in turn, will the standards be implemented? Jia Liu tackles these questions and more by offering a state-of-the-art analysis of metadata's major theoretical issues and most exemplary practices. Part one of her book elaborates on the general and latest knowledge about metadata and its implementations. Part two discusses an international array of metadata-related practices, projects, and applications in the digital library." -back cover.