Metadata: Automatic Generation and Extraction

Abstract

Today, library technical services departments have a new imperative: to carry forward their role to organize the world’s information and apply it in the digital age. At the heart of the necessary transition is envisioning the future of technical services as a future with millions and millions of digital objects and e-resources in it. It is therefore a future with metadata in it. The world of information technology is awash in talk of metadata. Metadata can be thought of as a lubricant for information flow- easing the difficulty of discovery and organization of resources. It can also serve as a nozzle -- directing, channeling, and focusing information flow to make it more manageable and effective. Producing metadata has long been the task of professionals such as librarians and indexers. Nowadays metadata is also being produced by non-specialists (e.g., ordinary users), publishers, commercial agents, and even software systems. Creating metadata is often labour-intensive. Though automate...