Handbook of Metadata, Semantics and Ontologies

Metadata research has emerged as a discipline cross-cutting many domains, focused on the provision of distributed descriptions (often called annotations) to Web resources or applications. Such associated descriptions are supposed to serve as a foundation for advanced services in many application areas, including search and location, personalization, federation of repositories and automated delivery of information. Indeed, the Semantic Web is in itself a concrete technological framework for ontology-based metadata. For example, Web-based social networking requires metadata describing people and their interrelations, and large databases with biological information use complex and detailed metadata schemas for more precise and informed search strategies.

There is a wide diversity in the languages and idioms used for providing meta-descriptions, from simple structured text in metadata schemas to formal annotations using ontologies, and the technologies for storing, sharing and exploiting meta-descriptions are also diverse and evolve rapidly. In addition, there is a proliferation of schemas and standards related to metadata, resulting in a complex and moving technological landscape — hence, the need for specialized knowledge and skills in this area.

TheHandbook of Metadata, Semantics and Ontologies is intended as an authoritative reference for students, practitioners and researchers, serving as a roadmap for the variety of metadata schemas and ontologies available in a number of key domain areas, including culture, biology, education, healthcare, engineering and library science.

Readership: Graduates and senior undergraduates in computing or information science; researchers in metadata, semantics and ontologies; practitioners in planning or managing information systems.

Table of Contents

Chapter I.1 Metadata Research: Making Digital Resources Useful Again?
Chapter I.2 Metadata Typology and Metadata Uses
Chapter I.3 The Value and Cost of Metadata
Chapter I.4 Metadata Quality
Chapter I.5 Ontologies in Systems Theory
Chapter II.1 Introduction to XML and Its Applications
Chapter II.2 Ontologies and Ontology Languages
Chapter II.3 Topic Maps
Chapter II.4 Methodologies for the Creation of Semantic Data
Chapter III.1 Metadata and Ontologies in e-Learning
Chapter III.2 Metadata and Ontologies for Health
Chapter III.3 Agricultural Knowledge Organization Systems: An Analysis of an Indicative Sample
Chapter III.4 Metadata and Ontologies for Bioinformatics
Chapter III.5 Metadata and Ontologies for Mechanical Objects’ Design and Manufacturing
Chapter III.6 Metadata and Ontologies for Emergency Management
Chapter III.7 Metadata and Ontologies for Tourism
Chapter III.8 Metadata Standards and Ontologies for Multimedia Content
Chapter IV.1 Technologies for Metadata Integration and Interoperability
Chapter IV.2 Technologies for Metadata Extraction
Chapter IV.3 Technologies for Metadata and Ontology Storage