For the few years that I've been working with metadata, I've had to answer that question that most librarians who don't work with reference and books dread, 'What do you do?' I do admit that at times, I've used the trite phrase, 'data about data' knowing full well it went a bit deeper than just that. In recent times, I have begun to improve my explanation to them by being more whimsical in my answer thereby avoiding that stress or frustration that comes with explaining this work to people who probably would
not understand no matter how much explaining you did in technical terms.
Nowadays, I just sing the following song to them:
The Rattlin' Bog
O-ro the rattlin' bog,
The bog down in the valley-o
O-ro the rattlin' bog,
The bog down in the valley-o
And in that bog there was a tree,
A rare tree, a rattlin' tree
With the tree in the bog
And the bog down in the valley-o.
(Chorus)
Now on that tree there was a limb,
A rare limb, a rattlin' limb
With the limb on the tree
And the tree in the bog
And the bog down in the valley-o.
(Chorus)
Now on that limb there was a branch,
A rare branch, a rattlin' branch
With the branch on the limb
And the limb on the tree
And the tree in the bog
And the bog down in the valley-o.
(Chorus)
Now on that branch there was a twig,
A rare twig, a rattlin' twig
With the twig on the branch,
And the branch on the limb
And the limb on the tree
And the tree in the bog
And the bog down in the valley-o.
Now on that branch there was a twig,
A rare twig, a rattlin' twig
With the twig on the branch,
And the branch on the limb
And the limb on the tree
And the tree in the bog
And the bog down in the valley-o.
(Chorus)
Now on that twig there was a nest,
A rare nest, a rattlin' nest
With the nest on the twig,
And the twig on the branch,
And the branch on the limb
And the limb on the tree
And the tree in the bog
And the bog down in the valley-o.
(Chorus)
Now in that nest there was an egg,
A rare egg, a rattlin' egg,
With the egg in the nest,
And the nest on the twig,
And the twig on the branch,
And the branch on the limb
And the limb on the tree
And the tree in the bog
And the bog down in the valley-o.
(Chorus)
Now in that egg there was a bird,
A rare bird, a rattlin' bird
With the bird in the egg,
And the egg in the nest,
And the nest on the twig,
And the twig on the branch,
And the branch on the limb
And the limb on the tree
And the tree in the bog
And the bog down in the valley-o.
(Chorus)
Now on that bird there was a feather,
A rare feather, a rattlin' feather,
With the feather on the bird,
And the bird in the egg,
And the egg in the nest,
And the nest on the twig,
And the twig on the branch,
And the branch on the limb
And the limb on the tree
And the tree in the bog
And the bog down in the valley-o.
(Chorus)
Now on that feather there was a flea,
A rare flea, a rattlin' flea
With the flea on the feather,
And the feather on the bird,
And the bird in the egg,
And the egg in the nest,
And the nest on the twig,
And the twig on the branch,
And the branch on the limb
And the limb on the tree
And the tree in the bog
And the bog down in the valley-o.
(Chorus)
This is awfully wordy but so is metadata. It's a lot of information. So what I usually tell them (after singing the entire song to them and enjoying their worried looks of fear and confusion) I explain that suppose you were looking for a particular tree and there was a huge database filled with trees of all types. You wanted one that contained an egg in a nest. You search 'egg, nest, tree' and it might pull up a bunch of trees, because undoubtedly there are many trees containing eggs in nests, but you want the one where the bird has a flea on its feather. So you search again using words like 'flea, feather, bird, nest, tree, etc.' and the system, let's say you're using Google or a library catalogue, it would narrow it down to maybe this tree and a few others, or maybe this is the tree you were looking for. Either way, without all of that information about that tree included with that item, which is a tree in this case, you would really struggle to find the exact tree you wanted.
Now we can go even further to say meta-metadata and start narrowing it down to what kind of flea, or bird but I usually won't go into that. This song seems to at least get them to understand that metadata is all of that information behind that one item. Usually I am not working with trees, but someone out there is so this is not irrelevant, but the same can be said for an archival item, a book, research data or whatever it is that a particular metadata librarian may be working on. A rare artifact and a rattlin' artifact, no matter what kind of artifact, the metadata will help you get to the artifacts as well as preserve the information surrounding that artifact for someone who might need to use it in the future.
This is metadata for the non-metadata familiar.
by Angelina Spotts, Metadata Specialist