Metadata Standards and Information Taxonomies

Metadata standards are an essential component in the organisation and management of records and archival material.  With the digitisation of valuable and fragile material, metadata management has become an increasingly important part of the work of archivists and records managers.  Document management systems and EDRMS depend on well-organised and properly considered metadata in order to operate effectively.  This module takes students through the fundamental principles of metadata before discussing some of the metadata standards that are relevant to archives and records management.  The second half of the module studies information taxonomies and is based on classification principles.  Students will explore the types of taxonomy that are used in archives and records collections.  The module provides an opportunity for students to develop their own taxonomies and to understand the techniques that are used to create file plans and controlled vocabularies such as thesauri.

The Metadata Standards and Information Taxonomy module will cover the following areas:

• What metadata is, the basic concepts behind metadata, and its role in the management of records collections and archives
• Ways in which metadata provides better access to archival materials and records
• Taxonomies and their role in categorising records and archival materials
• The different types of taxonomy that are used including: simple hierarchies, faceted classifications and folksonomies
• Management of taxonomies and their role as encoding schemes for creating metadata content
• Creation of thesauri and file plans and how they are used for managing records

Number of credits

20 SCQF credits (10 ECTS credits) on Level 5, SHE M (SCQF 11)

Tutor