Home » Decoding The Importance Of Metadata In Digitization And Preservation Of Content
Digital media has come a long way over the past decade. The shift from single-screen to multiple-screen and multi-device, from the subscription-based model to OTT service providers is apparent over the years. Keeping in line with the demand, broadcasters are also broadening their distribution channel.
With the audience having a wide variety of choice to consume video across platforms at their preferred time – broadcasters are leaving no stones unturned to digitize video content, even those dating back to decades.
Broadcasters are now focused on aggregation and distribution of highly-targeted content that reaches narrow-interest audiences. As broadcasters develop and store digital content to use and reuse across devices and platforms, the value of good shareable content is increasing.
However, the problem lies elsewhere. An estimated 98% of archived media is not available for digital distribution.
Migrating hours of media content from tape to digital storage is time-consuming. Though automated migration systems convert tapes to multiple digital formats simultaneously, tagging these files to make them searchable is a challenge.
Have you ever wondered how – when you Google – some videos top the search results? With an average of 300 hours of video content being uploaded to YouTube alone every minute, content producers and owners sweat over making their content optimized for search results.
The key to ensuring that your content doesn’t get lost in the crowd is tagging it with relevant keywords. While search engines have evolved over the years, they are still not human – hence can’t read/watch your content. They need a hint (or metadata) to understand the content and apply analytics to list them. While filtering, the search engine follows the following order – title, description, and tags. If you optimize these three, half of the battle is won.
In this paper, we will explore:
Metadata refers to “data about data.” It represents a detailed description of the underlying data within an object concerning its title, date & time of creation, format, length, language, year of reference, narration describing the object’s identity & purpose, etc.
For long-term digital archiving, metadata refers to the preservation techniques that are applied to the digital objects in the archives. Metadata does the following:
Depending on the nature of data and usability in a real-world scenario, metadata can be categorized as:
For long-term digital preservation, two types of metadata play a crucial role:
Defines three kinds of information packages, which are as follows:
Records the process that supports the preservation of digital data
According to ISO 23081, a schema is “a logical plan showing the relationships between metadata elements, normally through establishing rules for the use and management of metadata specifically as regards the semantics, the syntax and the optionality (obligation level) of values.”
The amount of metadata that needs to be stored for an object depends on its functional usage & significance. With a large amount of metadata already there, and more being published regularly for a different purpose by different communities, metadata schema designers need unique experience of using the Semantic Web to consider a metadata schema.
For long term preservation of data, a varying Metadata Schema Models has been developed, which includes the following:
Metadata plays a key role in processing, managing, accessing, and preserving digital content –be it audio, video, or image collections. Metadata has the following key functionalities:
The importance of metadata lies in the fact that it makes the content searchable – both online and offline. While filtering, the search engine follows the following order – title, description, and tags. Some key points to remember while using metadata for content digitization are:
Grab the attention with a catchy and compelling title. To make a title search engine (and mobile) friendly, limit it to 120 characters and include your top keywords. Think what the audience would relate to, and make the title informative and relevant.
Follow and include the keywords, and detail what the content is all about. Limit the most critical information within the first 22 words of your description – as search engine displays it on the list before you click ‘see more’ button.
A couple of things to keep in mind while tagging a digital asset are:
Metadata plays a crucial role in keeping track of content right from its inception to its processing and accessibility. It provides a complete description of the purpose and functionality of the data, making it easier for end-users to locate and retrieve the data. Therefore, it is crucial that all contents should have embedded metadata in them.
[1] https://www.recode.net/2014/4/8/11625358/modernizing-the-entertainment-industry-supply-chain-in-the-age-of
[2] https://merchdope.com/youtube-stats/
[3] https://www.techopedia.com/definition/1938/metadata
[4] https://committee.iso.org/sites/tc46sc11/home/projects/published/iso-23081-metadata-for-records.html