Metadata is a structured framework for documenting data. Some people like to say it’s data about data. It’s essential if anyone hopes to find and use your data. Metadata appears with every dataset on the open data portal.
The metadata standard we’re using is adapted from those used by the City of San Francisco and data.gov, the U.S. Federal government’s open data repository. Data Center metadata materials include:
Thanks to advice and support from the Digital Scholarship Services team at the University of Pittsburgh’s Library System, the Data Center is there to help data owners document their data through metadata and Data User Guides.
As always, if you have any questions, suggestions or comments about documenting data or anything else, please let us know.