What is Metadata?

In this video, Maggie Kruesi, Folklife Specialist at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, discusses why metadata is important for discovering materials, particularly in an online environment. She describes metadata as information that answers the who, what, where, and when of a particular object or document. She also describes metadata as a framework of standardized fields that can structure information about cultural heritage. This video supplements her SHN session, "Appraisal and Description Metadata" given at the 2015 Post-ATALM SHN Workshop, held at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC on September 13-15, 2015.