“Metadata: a New Word for an Old Concept,” Amin Yousefi, Shima Yousefi. Library Philosophy and Practice 2007 (August) 1 Library Philosophy and Practice 2007 ISSN 1522-0222 Metadata: a New Word for an Old Concept Amin Yousefi Department of Library and Information Science Faculty of Psychology and Education Allame Taba-tabaee University Tehran, Iran Shima Yousefi Department of Medical Library and Information Sciences Faculty of Management and Medical Information Science Iran University of Medical Sciences Tehran, Iran Introduction Metadata, or "data about data," is a new word based on an old concept. In libraries, cataloging is the process of creating metadata. A card-catalog containing information about a book is a simple example of metadata describing characteristics of an information resource. Regardless of old concepts, the term “metadata” is used particularly in the context of modern information systems and electronic networks. Defining Metadata Metadata has been defined in various ways. Tim Berners Lee defined metadata as "machine-readable information about electronic resources or other things" (1997). This definition addresses metadata applied to electronic resources and refers to “data” in a broader scope that includes not only textual, but non-textual information such as graphics, music, or anything likely to appear in an electronic format. It