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Detailed Description

Metadata is a description of the content, quality, lineage, contact, condition, and other characteristics of data. The description of the data is organized in a standardized format using a common set of terms. Metadata is literally "data about data". Metadata records are similar in concept to library catalog records: details about a book such as title, author, and publisher are recorded in a standard way to ease the search for information. Metadata ultimately makes information about data sets more easily accessible to scientists and researchers.

Sources/Usage

Public Domain.