Metadata & databases

 I have always heard the term metadata but never really had any understanding of it until after I read these chapters. My understanding after reading chapter 4 is that metadata is information that describes other data like information, objects, content or documents. There are also different types of metadata such as descriptive, administrative, operational and paradata. Each of these provides different types of information about data.

My understanding now of a database is that it is an organized electronic collection of information or data that is easily accessible and manageable. This is similar to my understanding before reading this chapter. When I hear database I think of library databases, which are an organized online collection of information. To me this term seems sort of broad but it helps to see how digital humanities actually works and is formatted.

Both of these chapters furthered my idea of digital humanities. Every time I learn about a new aspect of digital humanities it continues to help narrow down my definition of what can and cannot be considered digital humanities. These both seem to me like part of how digital humanities is organized. Metadata helps describe parts of digital humanities projects while databases organize them or could even be considered a digital humanities project in itself. Both metadata and databases help make digital humanities projects easier to digest and understand.

These are both definitely related to my project. The website of my project is a database itself where you can click on different exhibits and view pieces of artwork within each exhibit. Similarly, when you click on a specific piece of artwork, the website provides a significant amount of information about each piece of artwork. For example, it shows things like dates, mediums and information about the artist and where the artwork has been in the past.