Digital document metadata in organizations: roles, analytical approaches, and future research directions

Metadata characterize documents for discovery and use. In digital environments, conventional metadata are less likely to exist and, if they do, are unlikely to have been created by a trained cataloger. Within organizations, document metadata play roles beyond that of document discovery, e.g. organizational memory, visibility and network management. The Dublin Core, an author-created metadata structure, maps incompletely to identified organizational metadata needs, particularly that of “publisher”. Analytical approaches to metadata identify factors such as terseness vs. richness, and logical and physical separability vs. integration from the object described. In organizations, document discovery is often the start of a process of the use and re-use of both formal and informal document types. Additional research is needed to establish elements that would be important in organizations, the context and roles of metadata, and to explore approaches to metadata creation and use