"Metadata is basically data about data". Data within a DBMS includes fields such as name, city, phone #, etc.. So, information or data about this data would include the size of the given fields or the format of the information that is allowed to be entered in the field such as numbers or letters. Similarly, if you were to transfer a database without transferring the metadata as well then the data would be virtually un legible. The metadata is also data on how the data should be extracted or transformed so that it can be interpreted by the end-user.
Uploaded from: http://www.fao.org/aims/img/metadata_element_set.jpg
Uploaded from: http://www.fao.org/aims/img/metadata_element_set.jpgTo make the importance and role of metadata more clear, it can also be applied to documents on a personal computer. For instance, a word processing document has meta-data attached to it, which is information about the document itself. The metadata for such a document could be date last modified, or file size. In terms of this blog, the metadata is the labels for the post, which enables searchers to find blogs on a subject of interest. So if someone entered metadata, meta-data, dbms metadata, etc.. there is a possibility that this blog could present itself to the user because metedata is one of the labels attached to the post.
References
Metadata definition. Accessed April 6,2009 from: http://www.techterms.com/definition/metadata
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