Democratizing Metadata

Abstract

For most of its long and illustrious history, metadata has tended to be the preserve of the professional, the librarian, the archivist or the scholar. Although often intended for mass consumption, or at least wide circulation in specific communities, its creation has been very much the job of a small coterie of individuals. Some of these, such as Kallimachos of Cyrene, have been autodidacts who have taken it upon themselves to extend the practices that were current in their time into new areas; others (the vast majority) were either trained professionals or academics who produced it in the course of their research. Rarely has metadata been brought into existence by those who need to use it, those who lie outside these narrow circles of experts. It has been a top-down affair for centuries.