The experience of libraries with metadata can help in the management of companies

Mariana Brandt, PhD candidate in Information Sciences at Sao Paulo State University (Unesp) and information architect at Chamber of Deputies, Brasília, DF, Brazil

The doctoral research in Information Science of the student Mariana Brandt, supervised by Professor Silvana Gregório Vidotti, has as a key element the so-called “business metadata”. The researchers, who are part of the Post-Graduate Program in Information Science at Universidade Estadual de São Paulo (Unesp, São Paulo State University) presented part of this research in an article published in issue 31 of the journal Transinformação (Vol. 31). in the article entitled “Business metadata: Representation of business processes’ information”, the researchers explain the concept of “business metadata” and show that it is possible, and quite recommendable, to insert it in the field of Information Science, especially in the context of Information Architecture.

Libraries have used metadata for more than 200 years to organize their collections, as they know the importance of registering title, author, date and other elements of books and other materials in their collections. Already the interest of companies in registering essential elements for their work processes is recent.

“The key to your company’s prosperity is how well you gather, retain and disseminate knowledge. Managed metadata environments are critical to gathering, retaining and disseminating knowledge” (MARCO, 2006, p. 43).

We live in an age that is increasingly overloaded with information, so institutions need to filter and care for what really matters in their work processes. Such procedures are filled with information and need to be taken care to result in good business management.

Metadata discloses, describes, and explains characteristics, attributes, and formats of information elements that are not always explicit – often only found in the manager’s head, or the team staff notebook.

In the business context, business metadata can highlight essential parts of the business activity, assisting the management of the enterprise.

“It is the business metadata which provides appropriate business context for the understanding and analysis of data and for decision-support.” (SARDA, 2008, p. 14).

Business metadata is relevant information that can make a difference in process management – and hence its improvement, efficiency, and effectiveness. In addition, they are very useful for the development of information systems because they demonstrate how business information should be structured in systems, websites and other digital environments.

Brandt and Vidotti conclude that the inclusion of this type of metadata in their studies opens a range of possibilities for new research, such as the description of these metadata and the design of a repository, as well as for practical application in the market or acting as a metadata manager of various institutions.

References

MARCO, D. Managing metadata for the business, part 1. DM Review, v. 16, n. 2, p. 42-43, 2006.

SARDA, N. L. Structuring business metadata in data warehouse systems for effective business support. The Computing Research Repository, cs.DB/0110020, p. 2-16, 2001.

To read the article, access

BRANDT, M. B. and VIDOTTI, S. A. B. G. Metadados de negócio: representação da informação dos processos de trabalho. Transinformação, v. 31, e180006, 2019. ISSN: 0103-3786 [viewed 11 February 2019].  DOI: 10.1590/2318-0889201931e180006. Available from: http://ref.scielo.org/85c5xz

External link

Transinformação – TINF: www.scielo.br/tinf