Metadata & databases

After reading chapters four and five I was able to learn more about metadata and databases. The definition of metadata in the book is defined as "Metadata is used to classify, describe, organize, and connect records to artifacts and documents to each other" (Drucker 60). I understand metadata as an info center that organizes all the information and presents it to you. I believe that metadata and databases go hand and hand with each other. Databases are also a collection of data that can be found online. A specific example in the book that helped me understand databases more was the example of a spreadsheet. Databases and metadata add onto my understanding of digital humanities due to these two being able to store the data that makes up digital humanities. Without these two collections of data we would not be able to easily access information in an organized way. 

I believe that metadata is relevant to the current website I am analyzing. The website I am analyzing contains different categorized pieces of digital art that is stored in a menu section in the project. Without metadata it would be hard to find the specific art painting or author that I am looking for. I would also view my project as a database because of where it is stored in the New York Times. The New York Times is a large organized database that allows many people to access various types of data.

Comments

  1. Jordan RobichaudSeptember 18, 2022 at 9:07 PM

    I like your thesis, that without metadata and databases we would not be able to consume and access information in an organized way. Reading these chapters really made me realize how terrible data sets would be to look at without these methods of organization and formatting.

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