Week 4 Reading Notes

Wikipedia Database I've used databases for years, but the only kind I've ever built has been using Microsoft Access. I believe this is considered a relational database. It can be very challenging to build a database from scratch. That is one thing I hope I learn how do to better while I'm in LIS school. Some of this was review, but it was of terms and concepts I don't think about every day so some of it seemed new. The ACID rules seem important, and I'm not familiar with the replication processes. My own personal contacts database isn't replicated regularly (for example). I guess it would depend on how often a database is updated and how sensitive the information is. Introduction to Metadata Wow! I didn't know how important metadata is. I also didn't realize how many times I've been applying metadata in non-digital contexts without knowing I was doing so. It sounds to me as though metadata is any data describing a document or object, whether it's online or digital. For me metadata must be short, but perhaps this is not necessary to the definition. I wonder if an annotation is considered a form of metadata? Technically it could be, but I would still just call it an annotation. My main use of metadata has been in my physical and digital notes where I title and date each page and then provide an index as I go. Without these indexes and titles it would be almost impossible to find specific references that I need to study. This same concept applies all over the board though. I wonder if web sites that allow the use of tags made their tags less personalized and more conventional if that would help inexpert users make more useful metadata. An Overview of the Dublin Core Data Model This is pretty much what I was trying to convey in my notes on metadata. It seems like citations are already pretty formalized. Maybe the way these were developed could be used as a basic model in defining specific terms for specific types of data. There could be metadata classification systems where you simply fill in fields predetermined by the type of classification you are using. For instance, the biological sciences would need fields different from the humanities, but terms could be specified even further. Genetics has some similar terms as ecology, but each would still need their own specific list of terms that could be used in each discipline.