In very practical ways, metadata has different implications for different roles within information science and like so many topics close to us, it can be hard to sift through the available information to find out what it means to you. Regardless of experience, understanding or enthusiasm, metadata is important to us all.

Good metadata management is the key to addressing the challenges and seizing opportunities associated with the rise of big data, sprawl of data fabrics, and complexities of data governance. 

At its most basic level, metadata management organizes vast, growing data stores (both created and collected) and ensures assets are discoverable, measurable and shareable across the enterprise. 

There are challenges to metadata management. Enterprise metadata management can be difficult to implement for several reasons. It may require many solutions, including metadata repositories, data modeling and a data governance framework, to name a few.

Data-driven organizations make better decisions, acquire more customers and keep their customers longer. As a result, they drive more revenue and profits than businesses that make decisions based on speculation. Unfortunately, the inability to quickly find digital assets is a core problem that prevents many organizations from gaining a competitive advantage.

A robust metadata management strategy assures that an organization’s data is high quality, consistent and accurate across various systems. Organizations using a comprehensive metadata management strategy are more likely to make business decisions based on correct data than those who have no metadata management solution in place. It is an important component of any data governance initiative.

Lack of data findability leads to lack of data usability. Organizations can move from gigabytes to terabytes to petabytes in the span of 10 years. In an age where data is gold, successful organizations must be able to find and use all their data to gain a competitive advantage. The descriptive and search capabilities of metadata management are crucial to successfully finding and using that data.

Data Harmony is a fully customizable suite of software products designed to maximize precise, efficient information management and retrieval. Our suite includes tools for taxonomy and thesauri construction, machine aided indexing, database management, information retrieval and explainable artificial intelligence. It is our patented, award winning, artificial intelligence (AI) suite that leverages explainable AI for efficient, innovative and precise semantic discovery of your new and emerging concepts to help you find the information you need when you need it.

Melody K. Smith

Data Harmony is an award-winning semantic suite that leverages explainable AI.

Sponsored by Access Innovations, changing search to found.