Both metadata and taxonomies provide a way to organize, manage, and retrieve content or files, whether documents, presentations, images, video recordings, technical drawings, etc. Metadata is standardized data about digital content, with shared attributes, that need to be organized and retrieved.
Metadata is organized into a set of properties, elements, or fields (there are different names). Examples are File name, Author, File format, Content type, Language, Source, Purpose, Location, and Subject. Each metadata property is filled with specific values.
Metadata values are applied or tagged to content to serve various purposes, including targeted publishing, promotion, workflow definition, retrieval, comparison, and archiving. Taxonomies are sets of controlled terms that are hierarchically arranged (linked to each other in broader/narrower relationships) or grouped by category or type.
Taxonomies are usually implemented as values for certain metadata properties that require great detail, such as Subject, Activity, Product category, Industry, or Field of specialization. Taxonomy terms are used to describe what content is about. Content is tagged with taxonomy terms so that people can find it by its subjects. Metadata provides structure to content, and taxonomies are a part of that structure that enables retrieval based on the meaning of content. Since taxonomies are part of metadata, taxonomy governance is a part of metadata governance.
Governance is the enforcement of authority over the management of something, such as data, metadata, or taxonomies. The goals include ensuring quality, consistency, and usability, not just in the metadata or taxonomies themselves but also in their effectiveness when implemented in content management and retrieval. Governance comprises policies and procedures for the use and continued management of metadata and taxonomies.
There are two components to the governance of metadata and taxonomy:
Setting policies on how the metadata should be includes designating the metadata properties, their descriptions, uses, rules, and the types of values for each property. Setting a policy on how the taxonomy should be involves designating the taxonomy type, levels of hierarchy depth, use of synonyms, use of notes or definitions on terms, and the editorial style (capitalization, etc.) for term names.
Setting the procedure on management and maintenance deals with changes and updates to metadata and taxonomy. This is necessary to preserve consistency in the face of change and mitigate risks associated with change. This part of governance also involves the proper stakeholders. Taxonomy governance which describes how the taxonomy should be designed should be developed while the taxonomy is developed.
The part of taxonomy governance that describes processes and procedures for how the taxonomy should be maintained, on the other hand, is of greater importance to taxonomies than it is to metadata in general. Governance for taxonomy management procedures includes the following:
“Metadata standards” generally refers to specific, published metadata schemas, that have often been developed by a user community for certain kinds of resource and are encouraged for adoption by organizations that manage that kind of resource. The standard enumerates and defines all the metadata properties/elements. Examples include MARC and MODS for libraries, IPTC (International Press Telecommunications Council) for photographs, and Dublin Core (DC) Metadata Element Set, which is a generic set of 15 metadata properties for managing digital text resources. By following metadata schema standards, organizations can easily share and exchange content with each other or import and integrate content from outside sources.
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