Sharpen Your Digital PencilAn Introduction to Metadata

DENISE BARRETT OLSON

Moultrie Creek Guide

Our use of digital technology to support our research efforts has been focused on finding digitized records and building our family tree using applications specifically designed for genealogy. Online archives and genealogy applications have revolutionized genealogical research and made our research efforts much easier. Yet, when it comes to  organization and management tasks, we're still stuck in the paper age. Even when we are using digital tools, we're performing tasks and using workflows designed for paper systems.

Many of us digitize photos, documents and other family ephemera to share our treasures with others and to protect ourselves from disaster. Is your digital filing system organized like your paper system - even to the point of duplicating files so they can be filed under multiple surnames?

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Evernote uses tags to quickly organize and retrieve notes.

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Introducing Metadata

Metadata is the digital equivalent of that penciled note you would love to find on the back of an old family photo.

The formal definition is data used to describe data. In the paper world, a good metadata example is the citation. For a book, it's the title page. In the digital world, that information is embedded in the item's file. For example, a digital photograph can have information like date stamps, geotags and camera settings automatically included in the image file when you take the picture. You can add more metadata information using your photo management software. This includes things like title, description and tags. All this information is permanently added to the image file.

Metadata is not only today's equivalent of the pencil notes on an old family photo, it's also a very useful organizational tool. Why? Because most search engines - both desktop and online - can search the metadata in your photos and files. So, instead of building cumbersome filing systems and duplicating files in various locations, spend your time and effort adding appropriate metadata to your digitized items. It’s quick and easy. Once entered, that data and your computer's search function will put that record in your face faster than you can browse to the appropriate folder to find it. And, that same metadata is permanently embedded in the file - and any copies you make - providing provenance along with searchability.

Where do you begin?

You probably already have begun - you just aren't aware of it. Do you use a photo management app like Photoshop Elements or Photos to add titles, descriptions and keywords to your pictures? If so, you're creating metadata. It's easy to add it to other items you create. If you scan documents to PDF, does your scanning app allow you to add keywords and descriptive information in addition to the document title? That's metadata. Microsoft Word users will find

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the File > Properties command displays a nice form for adding metadata. Mac users can add tags (keywords) to files as they are saved.

Once you get into the metadata habit, you'll find your computer's search function is a lot more . . . functional. In this example, Mac’s Spotlight search feature searches metadata and file content along with file names. You can also take advantage of "smart" folders - virtual folders that appear in Finder (for the Mac) or File Manager (for Vista or later) based on a saved search. Any time a new document is created or added to your file system that fits your saved search's criteria, it will be automatically included in that smart folder. Features like these allow you to have one physical file and “display” it in multiple places. Recent versions of Windows also support saved searches and users can take

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Results of a Spotlight search on a Mac.

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advantage of its advanced search feature in Files Manager to search the metadata you included in your Office documents' Properties.

Application developers are giving us all kinds of ways to put metadata to good use. Bloggers are familiar with a feature called a tag cloud. A tag cloud often serves as an index to blog sites. The example you see here is a tag cloud widget displayed in the blog’s sidebar. It is a collection of tags (keywords) the blogger assigned to articles as they were published. The larger a tag is, the more articles there are on that topic. Site visitors can click on any tag to view all the articles tagged for that topic. The blog’s programming does all the work. The blogger only has to add appropriate tags before publishing each article.

If you use writing platforms such as Scrivener or Ulysses, you can use tags to quickly organize - and reorganize - your story collections by surname, location or historical event. Tags can also define the status (draft, for review, final) of individual stories.

Many journaling apps, like the Day One app shown here, automatically add date stamps and location coordinates to new entries. The writer can add tags and use

any of that collected metadata to later collect all the entries related to a person, place or event.

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Where to look . . .

You’ll find metadata in a number of places. Here are just a few:

There are even more ways metadata can support your research. Follow the Gazette for ideas and articles on research technology and digital storytelling.

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For More Information To learn more about metadata, visit

Moultrie Creek Gazette Tech support for the family historian

http://www.moultriecreek.us

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0

United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-nd/

3.0/us/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California,

94105, USA.

For more information regarding this presentation contact me at http://moultriecreek.us or by email at

denise@moultriecreek.us.

Apple’s Photos Photoshop Elements

Microsoft Office apps Mac’s Finder

WordPress Medium

Tumblr Twitter

Evernote Flickr

Ulysses Day One

Scrivener