The Role of Metadata in Digital Preservation

The production of digital objects, things such as e-books, photos, and electronic documents, is overwhelming. Libraries and other institutions are collecting digital objects quickly at a high quantity, but such objects will not last long unless preservation efforts are made. Just as physical collections need preservation so too do digital ones, but digital objects are even more fragile and need more care and maintenance. Metadata is an integral part of the preservation process of digital material. Metadata is more than just data about data, it is the documentation of an object that provides description, context, and long-term usability. The more quality metadata there is with an electronic object, the better it will be preserved and accessible in the future. Metadata is almost equal in importance to the digital object itself. Yet although quality metadata is necessary for preservation, there are difficulties to its widespread implementation and in general institutions are not providing enough for the preservation of digital material. However, there are efforts being made to provide metadata standards and to create ways to collect that information on a large scale. This is a literature review examining the role of metadata in the preservation of digital objects and how institutions are responding to the need for better metadata at a higher quantity.