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Public Media Metadata Co-op

What is an Array; and When to Use One?

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PBS Information Management Team
http://eisforexplore.blogspot.com
Metadata Co-Op Blog Posts
Broadly, any array should represent the pertinent metadata to make its contents meaningful.

  1. Repeating values that don’t need to be differentiated by class/type to be useful

    1. e.g. keywords

    2. Okay - Simple list/array

  2. Repeating values that are prefixed with class/type info. as single string

    1. e.g. content identifiers

    2. Okay - Simple list/array

  3. Grouping of related metadata element/attributes

    1. E.g. Title, Title Language, Title Class

    2. Okay if doesn’t need to be separately parsed downstream

  4. Transformation and grouping of data currently formatted as separate metadata elements that are parsed/processed downstream in current form

    1. Generally, don’t transform data format or syntax unless you have a compelling reason to do so