Week 5's Reading Notes- M. Farina

9/27 Notes on Reading for Week 5:

Wikipedia’s “Database”
From this reading, I’ve learned that there are many more aspects to databases than I was previously aware of- such as the R/ODBMS components, the three types of databases, storage structures and locking. Although much of the article is over my head, I do now have a greater understanding of databases as a whole.
I’m mostly a user of databases, and rarely a manager of them. I’ve entered and retrieved data, chosen various display methods (lists, graphs, etc.) but I have very limited experience with the management and creation of databases. A realistic goal for me at this point is to continue learning how to use Excel! I’m a beginning-level user who would really like to use this to its fullest capacity, databases included.

Introduction to Metadata, “Setting the Stage” by Ann J. Gillilard
As I began reading this article, it reminded me of the Imagining Pittsburgh project from a previous week’s reading. The participants in that project needed to decide on a common set of descriptive data (metadata) to describe the hundreds of photographs, for cataloging and retrieval needs.
A quote that caught my eye is, “there is no single metadata standard that is adequate for describing all types of collections and materials.” Although this surprised me at first, it became a logical and even obvious idea after I thought about it. ON the same lines, there’s no one ‘best’ method for adults to learn a foreign language, and there’s no set of adjectives that can precisely describe all teenage boys, for example.
The vast array of metadata standards and requirements across the various disciplines, make talking about “metadata” in general somewhat confusing. Adding a specific context, i.e. museum archives, a bank’s customer account information, to the discussion allows for a common ‘metadata language.’
I found the tables of types, attributes, and characteristics of metadata to be very helpful. In the little known fact section, I like this: “Metadata continues to accrue during the life of an information object or system.” Oh, no! Does this mean that we’ll have to continually update metadata fields entered in to cataloging databases, for example?
The Conclusion and Outstanding Questions at the end wrap it all very well….”Carefully crafting metadata” is best! As with many things in life, it’s best to begin with a GOOD PLAN.

Dublin Core Data Model
Eric Miller explains factors that must be considered in the development of universal, multi-disciplined metadata architecture. Can you imagine trying to create one set of controlled vocabulary that covers all disciplines? And that’s only one component of DCMI’s role. I think this metadata initiative is very interesting, and I’d like to hear how it has evolved since 1999, which is when the author wrote this article.