The field of metadata is thriving more now than ever before under the current climate of Semantic Web technology, the Open Science movement, data science, digital scholarship, and digital humanities. Innovative metadata practices and development continue to improve the ways metadata are created, discovered, and used. These significant changes that have occurred since the second edition of this book was published five years ago generated a need to bring this book up-to-date.

A new edition is a major undertaking. During the revision for the second edition, we updated the book’s contents based on our analysis of job descriptions, theses and dissertations, published journal articles, and conference proceedings related to metadata from the previous several years. We drew on feedback from the community—from instructors of metadata classes, students, practitioners, and researchers—and on our own experience in teaching metadata courses and conducting metadata research in an attempt to uncover the most significant metadata developments and practices during the seven years from 2008 to 2015.

In the past five years since the second edition’s release in 2016, we have witnessed many activities happening in the (meta)data-driven age, especially in the areas of Linked Data, Open Science, and Digital Humanities, hence made the decision to pursue another edition. The book’s overall structure, chapter contents, and educational examples remain mostly the same. This new edition: ƒ

• provides updated web links for all sources ƒ
• uses the newest versions of the standards available (e.g., DC Terms’ 2020 release coordinating with its ISO 15396-2:2019, Data Catalog Vocabulary (DCAT)—Version 2, EAD 3, Lightweight Information Describing Objects (LIDO) v1.1 Public Beta, Schema.org’s updates in responding to COVID- 19 and the new versions, etc.) ƒ
• introduces newly developed standards and best practices (e.g., FAIR principles for (meta)data, Darwin Core Quick Reference Guide, W3C Recommendation for Data on the Web Best Practices, etc.), interpreting the conceptual models according to their continuing development (e.g., the IFLA Library Reference Model (LRM) that consolidated the FRBR family models, the BIBFRAME 2.0 that has been implemented by national libraries) ƒ
• introduces advanced semantic technologies when appropriate (e.g., in semantic enrichment, smart data, and knowledge graphs)

The book’s divisions function in much the same way as in the previous edition, as explained in the pages for these five parts:

• I. Fundamentals of metadata
• II. Metadata vocabulary building blocks
• III. Metadata services
• IV. Metadata outlook in research
• V. Metadata standards

The HOME page will lead you to the details of the contents of each part and chapter.

About The Authors

MARCIA LEI ZENG is Professor of Information Science at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, USA, where she teaches knowledge organization systems (KOS), metadata, Linked Data, and cultural heritage informatics. Her primary research interests include KOS, Linked Data, metadata, smart data and big data, database quality control, semantic technologies, and digital humanities. Her scholarly publications consist of more than 100 papers and six books, as well as over 200 national and international conference presentations, invited lectures, and keynote speeches. Her research projects have received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), OCLC, Ohio Board of Regents, Fulbright, and other esteemed academic and scientific foundations. Dr. Zeng has chaired or served on numerous committees, working groups, and executive boards for the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), Special Libraries Association (SLA), Association of Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T), the US National Information Standards Organization (NISO), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI), International Society for Knowledge Organization (ISKO), and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Dr. Zeng holds a PhD from the School of Computing and Information at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Website: https://www.kent.edu/ischool/marcia-lei-zeng-phd

JIAN QIN is Professor at the School of Information Studies, Syracuse University. The areas of her research interest include metadata, knowledge and data modeling, scientific communication, research collaboration networks, and research data management. Her research was funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, National Science Foundation, National Institute of Health/ National Center for General Medical Science, Sloan Foundation/Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), and Online Computer Library Center (OCLC). Jian Qin has published widely in scholarly journals and presented her research at national and international conferences. She is the co-author of the book Metadata and co-editor for several special journal issues on knowledge discovery in databases and knowledge representation. Jian Qin served on numerous committees in the Association of Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T), DCMI, and other professional communities and is a Distinguished Member of ASIS&T. She received the 2020 Frederick G. Kilgour Award for Research in Library and Information Technology. Jian Qin holds a Master of Science in Library and Information Science from Western University and a PhD from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Website: http://jianqin.metadataetc.org/

Acknowledgement