*Paper presented at the Annual Seminar on Electronic Sources of Information, ISI/DRTC, Bangalore, 1–3 March 2000
Defines the scope of metadata with particular reference to the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW). The different features of and functions that may be supported by, metadata are enumerated. The principal metadata formats Doublin Core, Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) and the Machine Readable Catalogue (MARC) are briefly discussed, and compared on the basis of a set of criteria constituency, ease of creation, content, compatibility with Internet protocols, and interoperability. The importance of developing appropriate metadata standards is emphasized.
