administrative metadata

n.Data that is necessary to manage and use information resources and that is typically external to informational content of resources.

Notes

Administrative metadata often captures the context necessary to understand information resources, such as creation or acquisition of the data, rights management, and disposition.

Citations

Puglia, Reed, and Rhodes 2004, p. 8 Administrative metadata comprises both technical and preservation metadata, and is generally used for internal management of digital resources. Administrative metadata may include information about rights and reproduction or other access requirements, selection criteria or archiving policy for digital content, audit trails or logs created by a digital asset management system, persistent identifiers, methodology or documentation of the imaging process, or information about the source materials being scanned. In general, administrative metadata is informed by the local needs of the project or institution and is defined by project-specific workflows. Administrative metadata may also encompass repository-like information, such as billing information or contractual agreements for deposit of digitized resources into a repository.