UVic Libraries FAQs

Metadata means "data about data." Librarians and others who work with information, like web developers, use metadata to organize and retrieve information. The old catalogue cards, now largely replaced by electronic records, contain metadata about books to help people find them. Similarly, web pages have metadata hidden in the code that helps search engines know what the page is about.

Metadata in UVicSpace works the same way, and you will input some of it yourself when depositing items, including the title, author(s), item type, keywords, and abstract. Though some of these fields are optional, we strongly recommend that you include as much information as possible, including multiple keywords. Solid, comprehensive metadata allows users to search for and find your work in multiple ways.