| Metadata Tools
For metadata information to be used for the needs of the person or business looking at it, there are a variety of tools in place that help to customize that information. You can find these tools online and download them, have them implemented by a programmer, or purchase a metadata software program to perform them for you. Here is some information on well used metadata tools that you may find useful when looking at your data.
METS Navigator was designed by the Indiana University Digital Library Program in 2006. It is used to display various pages and images quickly by encoding them. It meets the criteria for the XML language as set by the Library of Congress. It offers a menu so you can quickly choose a specific area of the document you are interested in. This includes illustrations, headers, footers, and text.
The METS Java Toolkit was developed by Stephen Abrams who is an engineer at Harvard University Library. This is a binding framework that allows each part of the file to be instantly recognized by the system. It can be used for both global and local metadata purposes.
The MEX Authoring Tools allow you to edit all parts of your documents without having to use the XML tagging system. This allows you to immediately be able to start working on your material without having to jump through any hoops. One of the most commonly used metadata tools is the Xt Metadata Editor. It runs under the UNIX with the Windows system.
There is no tool yet that allows you to measure the accuracy of metadata so it has to be monitored by a person who knows what to look for. One weakness that has been identified with metadata is that you really can’t attach a single date to anything. It has to have a day, month, and year. In the long run this is a good thing but many programmers believe it should be changed in the metadata standard.
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