Metadata management and application

In the parlance of Library and Information Sciences, metadata refers to information dimensions which are created, stored and shared in order to understand the value and contextual relevance of an information resource. It is inspired from the very idea of cataloguing library resources that has been the bread and butter of librarians for centuries. With the evolution of the World Wide Web and more recently the social semantic web, the importance of metadata has acquired a new dimension specific to web information management systems. The paper attempts to be a primer of various dimensions of metadata management for students, researchers and practitioners in the domain of Library and Information Sciences. It addresses wide ranging theoretical, technical and research issues in metadata management, and concludes with a fervent appeal to take up metadata practice and research.