What is Metadata and why is it useful and needed? Metadata is information that you provide to describe your data resources. Search engines use metadata to help users find the data you put online. We ask for two types of metadata on our portal, structural metadata to describe what the file is and where it is located (file type, URL, etc.), and descriptive metadata to tell users what information the file contains (title, description, publisher). The more information the search engine has about your data resources, the easier it will be for it to point to your resource when users search. Metadata is what helps a user narrow down 300 data resources to just a few that will likely provide the data they need to answer their question. To help in creating the metadata you will need for your data resource, we have created a Microsoft Excel template that describes each Metadata field, how you should fill it out, and whether we require it for publication of your data resource.Download the template...
