readings for week 4

The first article was about databases. I had no idea that databases have been around since the 1960’s. Databases are collections or records or data on a computer system. I never knew there was more than one type of database models. The hierarchical model makes sense to me as an organizing model, with every record relating to the one above it. The network model seemed like it might be the easiest to use, and it seemed to be the most flexible. In this model, records can relate to one-another, files can belong to multiple sets, and have multiple “parents. This made the most sense to me, because it allows larger, more diverse groups of files to exist separately from smaller groups, they don’t all have to be on levels. The relational model was very well organized, and seemed to me to be like a spreadsheet, because in this model there are columns and rows. I thought it was interesting also that databases are full of security, which is very important in our world today, these securities, such as encryption may prevent hackers from stealing personal information.
The article by Anne Gilliland was all about metadata, which is the data about data. This is a term used by information professionals, and can be referring to indexes, abstracts, bibliographies, and cataloging records. One important thing about metadata is content, which is the object it is about. The context of metadata is also important, it indicates the data’s importance regarding who, what where or how. These two are combined to make the structure of the metadata. I thought one thing that was important is that metadata does not have to be digital. One form of metadata that existed before the digital age is bibliographies.
The article on Dublin Core would not load on my computer, so I looked it up on Wikipedia, and found some information about it. The Dublin Core Model was founded in Dublin, Ohio, at an OCLC convention. Dublin core uses XML, which is a type of database model. The Dublin Core model makes it easier to find things on the web, because it describes them in an easier to use language. The “Core” is an element of a database.