Book review: Metadata for information management and retrieval – Understanding metadata and its use

This new and updated second edition of a classic text provides a thought-provoking introduction to metadata for all library, museums, archives and information management students and professionals. The concepts explored, and examples described, arise from a wide range of disciplines including libraries, information and records management, digital objects, research data collections, web resources, digitised images and photographs, social media, music and sound records and museum objects. Metadata for information management and retrieval has been fully revised by David Haynes to bring it up to date with new technology and standards. The new edition, containing new chapters on metadata standards, encoding schemes, very large data collections and the politics and ethics of metadata, assesses the current theory and practice of metadata and examines key developments in terms of both policy and technology. The book is not an instruction manual on how to design or create metadata but is instead a detailed study, introducing the concepts and models behind metadata. It explores how metadata operates from the perspective of both users and managers. The book is divided into three parts: