What
form should the metadata take?
The form for maintaining metadata will depend on a number of factors;
• the size of the data holdings,
• the size of an organisation and
• the devolution of data management within an organisation.
If the metadata holdings are fairly modest then it is common to store the metadata in discrete documents by using any tool that is currently used (e.g. word-processor, spreadsheet, and simple database). Commonly organisations have built up folders of single documents that may be in either paper or digital formats. Many organisations will start to investigate the use of more complex systems as they realise the benefit of the metadata, and as they gain greater data holdings and start to provide broader access to the data. |
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Indeed
many organisations will start with a basic audit of their data holdings
which will alert them of the vast wealth of data that they indeed possess
and where it is being used, replicated or improved across the organisation.
As the data holdings become larger and the access to the data distributed,
then organisations would look at more advanced methods for maintaining metadata
of their data holdings. These advanced tools may consist of commercial or
self-developed forms based systems that may also form part of the operational
GI systems to extract aspects of the metadata automatically from the data
itself.
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