You can find out this information by looking at the metadata of a collection or archival record. This typically include short or detailed descriptions about the history, context, and information about the object itself and the people, places, and time periods in which that object was created.
What is Metadata?
Most commonly defined as "data about data" or "information about information." This means that metadata is used to describe something such as an archival record. These descriptions can provide insights on why something was created, by whom, and what it might be about.
Why is it Important?
Metadata helps archivists better manage their records, it provides opportunities for discovery and location, as well as facilitates understanding of the record and its contents.
How do Archivist Create Metadata?
Archivists and records managers have always been creating metadata except it isn't until recent that they started to use that term instead of older key terms like "cataloging" or "describing". For example, most of archival metadata can be found in finding aids, file lists, inventories, registers, catalog records, calendars of correspondence, published repository guides, and file plans. Records managers, meaning those in charge of records still in use by their original creators, also capture metadata about their organization's records in their records systems and related tools.
Archival metadata has long been used by researchers to identify, locate and interpret records. Although archivists and record managers have always been in the business of metadata, only recently have they begun to develop archival description standards and tools that ensure the appropriate metadata is captured and maintained across time and domain.
Metadata can normally be grouped into the following categories each describing different purposes for the metadata found in each.
Structural Metadata
Structural metadata contains useful information that helps in the establishment of object relationships.
Descriptive Metadata
Helps identify and distinguish a record or data resource. It includes details regarding the data’s context and content. Descriptive metadata is structured and frequently follows one or more established standard schemes. At the system level, descriptive metadata enables users to search for and obtain information.
Preservation Metadata
Assist the process of sustaining or accessing a digital object or file. This metadata may also document changes to a record including when a new version of a set of data is created. It can describe the relationship among various versions of data objects.
Provenance Metadata
Provenance metadata gives useful information about a data resource’s origins. The characteristics of provenance metadata include: such as data ownership, transformations, consumption, and archival, facilitates monitoring a resource’s lifecycle. Sometimes this metadata can also be found within descriptive or preservation fields.
Administrative Metadata
Describes a file’s management or control constraints such as restrictions to file, terms of access when using this data, or overall management parameter for the record. Administrative metadata provides complete details regarding data including information about the new stewards of the record or data meaning those that did not originally create the record, but that now manage or contribute to its sustainability. Administrative metadata is analogous to a basic version of data specifically managing and simplifying complex relationships or elements.
An Example of a Loyola Metadata Record (Using the Dublin Core Metadata Standard)
Title: UP005696
Creator (LoC): Cresson, Russell G.
Contributor (LoC): Loyola University (New Orleans, La.)
Subject (LoC): Loyola University (New Orleans, La.); Students; Shields, Thomas J., 1900-1975
Description: Outdoor campus; Father Shields (center, standing)
Publisher: Loyola University (New Orleans, La.)
Date: 1950-1952
Type: Image
Format: JPEG
Identifier: (the URL of the item; example: http://loynosca.libraryhost.com/items/show/5 in Omeka)
Source: Loyola University New Orleans Special Collections & Archives, New Orleans, LA. http://library.loyno.edu/research/speccoll/
Language: en
Relation: (the URL of the entire collection; example:http://loynosca.libraryhost.com/exhibits/show/chin-deep-in-debris--a-katrina/ in Omeka)
Coverage: New Orleans (La.); 1950;
Rights: Digital rights are held by Loyola University New Orleans. Copyright is retained in accordance with U.S. copyright law.
NOTES TO READER
*LoC = Library of Congress authority controlled
Metadata Standards
Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS)
OAI-PMH – A metadata harvesting standard
FGDC* Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM) – Emphasis on geospatial data
Metadata Controlled Vocabularies
Library of Congress Authorities