ABSTRACT
Descriptive metadata allows users to probe digital repositories and find relevant information. While today’s metadata formats have strong roots in historic classification, categorization, and description practices of libraries in the print world, the world wide web has allowed digital repositories to flourish using the metadata-based discovery of digital content. Old and new approaches mix as cultural heritage organizations experiment with reintroducing highly structured metadata in the form of linked data, examine the utility of specialized metadata formats for different communities, and apply both established and novel textual analysis tools to discovery systems. Metadata practices have matured to the extent that the cultural heritage community has become introspective, applying critical theory to metadata practices to uncover and attempt to address bias inherent in the descriptive process.
