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Haynes 4th proof 13 December 2017 13/12/2017 15:37 Page i

Metadata for
Information
Management and
Retrieval
Haynes 4th proof 13 December 2017 13/12/2017 15:37 Page ii

Every purchase of a Facet book helps to fund CILIP’s advocacy,

awareness and accreditation programmes for
information professionals.
Haynes 4th proof 13 December 2017 13/12/2017 15:37 Page iii

Metadata for
Information
Management and
Retrieval
Understanding metadata and its use

Second edition

David Haynes
Haynes 4th proof 13 December 2017 13/12/2017 15:37 Page iv

© David Haynes 2004, 2018

Published by Facet Publishing

7 Ridgmount Street, London WC1E 7AE
www.facetpublishing.co.uk

Facet Publishing is wholly owned by CILIP: the Library and Information

Association.
The author has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988 to be identified as author of this work.

Except as otherwise permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988 this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form
or by any means, with the prior permission of the publisher, or, in the case of
reprographic reproduction, in accordance with the terms of a licence issued by
The Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside
those terms should be sent to Facet Publishing, 7 Ridgmount Street, London
WC1E 7AE.

Every effort has been made to contact the holders of copyright material
reproduced in this text, and thanks are due to them for permission to reproduce
the material indicated. If there are any queries please contact the publisher.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1-85604-824-8 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-78330-115-7 (hardback)
ISBN 978-1-78330-216-1 (e-book)

First published 2004

This second edition, 2018

Text printed on FSC accredited material.

Typeset from author’s files in 10/13 pt Palatino Lintoype and Open Sans by
Flagholme Publishing Services.
Printed and made in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY.
Haynes 4th proof 13 December 2017 13/12/2017 15:37 Page v

Contents

List of figures and tables ix

Preface xi
Acknowledgements xiii

PART I METADATA CONCEPTS 1

1 Introduction 3
Overview 3
Why metadata? 3
Fundamental principles of metadata 4
Purposes of metadata 11
Why is metadata important? 17
Organisation of the book 17

2 Defining, describing and expressing metadata 19

Overview 19
Defining metadata 19
XML schemas 24
Databases of metadata 26
Examples of metadata in use 27
Conclusion 33

3 Data modelling 35
Overview 35
Metadata models 35
Unified Modelling Language (UML) 36
Resource Description Framework (RDF) 36
Dublin Core 39
The Library Reference Model (LRM) and the development of RDA 40
ABC ontology and the semantic web 42
Indecs – Modelling book trade data 44
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VI METADATA FOR INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AND RETRIEVAL

OAIS – Online exchange of data 46

Conclusion 48

4 Metadata standards 49
Overview 49
The nature of metadata standards 49
About standards 51
Dublin Core – a general-purpose standard 51
Metadata standards in library and information work 54
Social media 62
Non-textual materials 64
Complex objects 70
Conclusion 74

PART II PURPOSES OF METADATA 75

5 Resource identification and description (Purpose 1) 77
Overview 77
How do you identify a resource? 77
Identifiers 78
RFIDs and identification 85
Describing resources 86
Descriptive metadata 88
Conclusion 93

6 Retrieving information (Purpose 2) 95

Overview 95
The role of metadata in information retrieval 95
Information Theory 97
Types of information retrieval 98
Evaluating retrieval performance 102
Retrieval on the internet 104
Subject indexing and retrieval 106
Metadata and computational models of retrieval 107
Conclusion 111

7 Managing information resources (Purpose 3) 113

Overview 113
Information lifecycles 113
Create or ingest 117
Preserve and store 118
Distribute and use 122
Review and dispose 123
Transform 124
Conclusion 124

8 Managing intellectual property rights (Purpose 4) 127

Overview 127
Rights management 127
Haynes 4th proof 13 December 2017 13/12/2017 15:37 Page vii

CONTENTS VII

Provenance 134
Conclusion 137

9 Supporting e-commerce and e-government (Purpose 5) 139

Overview 139
Electronic transactions 139
E-commerce 140
Online behavioural advertising 141
Indecs and ONIX 143
Publishing and the book trade 144
E-government 148
Conclusion 149

10 Information governance (Purpose 6) 151

Overview 151
Governance and risk 151
Information governance 153
Compliance (freedom of information and data protection) 154
E-discovery (legal admissibility) 156
Information risk, information security and disaster recovery 156
Sectoral compliance 158
Conclusion 159

PART III MANAGING METADATA 161

11 Managing metadata 163
Overview 163
Metadata is an information resource 163
Workflow and metadata lifecycle 164
Project approach 165
Application profiles 170
Interoperability of metadata 171
Quality considerations 179
Metadata security 181
Conclusion 182

12 Taxonomies and encoding schemes 185

Overview 185
Role of taxonomies in metadata 185
Encoding and maintenance of controlled vocabularies 186
Thesauri and taxonomies 188
Content rules – authority files 191
Ontologies 194
Social tagging and folksonomies 199
Conclusion 201

13 Very large data collections 203

Overview 203
The move towards big data 203
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VIII METADATA FOR INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AND RETRIEVAL

What is big data? 205

The role of linked data in open data repositories 206
Data in an organisational context 209
Social media, web transactions and online behavioural 211
advertising
Research data collections 212
Conclusion 219

14 Politics and ethics of metadata 221

Overview 221
Ethics 221
Power 226
Money 229
Re-examining the purposes of metadata 230
Managing metadata itself 236
Conclusion 237

References 239
Index 257
Haynes 4th proof 13 December 2017 13/12/2017 15:37 Page ix

List of figures and tables

Figures
1.1 Metadata from the Library of Congress home page 12
2.1 Example of marked-up text 20
2.2 Rendered text 21
2.3 Word document metadata 28
2.4 Westminster Libraries – catalogue search 30
2.5 Westminster Libraries catalogue record 30
2.6 WorldCat search 31
2.7 WorldCat detailed record 32
2.8 OpenDOAR search of repositories 32
2.9 Detailed OpenDOAR record 33
3.1 An RDF triple 37
3.2 More complex RDF triple 37
3.3 A triple expressed as linked data 38
3.4 DCMI resource model 39
3.5 Relationships between Work, Expression, Manifestation and Item 41
3.6 LRM agent relationships 42
3.7 Publication details using the ABC Ontology 44
3.8 Indecs model 45
3.9 OAIS simple model 46
3.10 OAIS Information Package 46
3.11 Relationship between Information Packages in OAIS 47
4.1 BIBFRAME 2.0 model 57
4.2 Overlap between image metadata formats 66
4.3 IIIF object 67
4.4 Relationships between IIIF objects 67
4.5 Metadata into an institutional repository 72
4.6 How OAI-PMH works 72
5.1 Example of relationship between ISTC and ISBN 85
5.2 Structure of an Archival Resource Key 85
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X METADATA FOR INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AND RETRIEVAL

6.1 Resolution power of keywords 96

6.2 Boolean operators 100
6.3 British Library search interface 108
6.4 Metadata fields in iStockphoto 111
7.1 DCC simplified information lifecycle 116
7.2 Generic model of information lifecycle 116
7.3 PREMIS data model 121
7.4 Loan record from Westminster Public Libraries 123
8.1 ODRL Foundation Model 131
8.2 Legal view of entities in ONIX 132
8.3 Creative Commons Licence 133
8.4 PROV metadata model for provenance 135
9.1 Cookie activity during a browsing session 142
9.2 ONIX e-commerce transactions 146
11.1 Stages in the lifecycle of a metadata project 166
11.2 Singapore Framework 170
11.3 Possible crosswalks between four schemas 177
11.4 Possible crosswalks between ten schemas 177
11.5 Data Catalog Vocabulary Data Model 178
11.6 A-Core Model 180
12.1 Extract from an authority file from the Library of Congress 192
12.2 Conceptual model for authority data 192
12.3 Use of terms from a thesaurus 193
12.4 Google Knowledge Graph results 197
12.5 Structured data in Google about the British Museum 198
13.1 Screenshot of search results from the European Data Portal 208
13.2 Agents involved in delivering online ads to users 212
13.3 A ‘pyramid’ of requirements for reusable data 214
13.4 Silo-based searching 218
13.5 Federated search service 218
13.6 Index-based discovery system 219

Tables
1.1 Day’s model of metadata purposes 13
1.2 Different types of metadata and their functions 14
4.1 KBART fields 60
4.2 IIIF resource structure 68
11.1 Dublin Core to MODS Crosswalk 176
13.1 Comparison of metadata fields required for data sets in Project Open Data 209
13.2 Core metadata elements to be provided by content providers 213
14.1 Metadata standards development 231
Haynes 4th proof 13 December 2017 13/12/2017 15:37 Page xi

Preface

T
HIS IS NOT A ‘HOW TO DO IT’ BOOK. There are several excellent guides
about the practical steps for creating and managing metadata. This
book is intended as a tutorial on metadata and arose from my own
need to find out more about how metadata worked and its uses. The original
book came out at a time when there were very few guides of this type
available. Metadata Fundamentals for All Librarians provided a good starting
point which introduced the basic concepts and identified some of the main
standards that were then available (Caplan, 2003). It was an early publication
from a period of tremendous development and in an area that was changing
day to day. Introduction to Metadata, published by the Getty Institute,
represented another milestone and provided more comprehensive
background to metadata (Baca, 1998). It is now in its third edition (Baca, 2016).
In my work as an information management consultant many colleagues
and clients kept asking the questions: ‘What is metadata?’, ‘How does it
work?’, and ‘What’s it for?’. The last of these questions particularly resonated
with the analysis and review of information services. This led to the
development of a view of metadata defined by its purposes or uses. Since the
first edition of Metadata for Information Management and Retrieval there have
been many excellent additions to the literature, notably Zeng and Qin’s book,
simply entitled Metadata, which is now in its second edition (Zeng and Qin,
2008; 2015; Haynes, 2004). I also enjoyed Philip Hider’s book, Information
Resource Description, which is substantially about metadata from a subject
retrieval perspective (Hider, 2012). There are many other excellent tomes,
some of which are mentioned in the main body of this book. I hope that this
second edition adds a unique perspective to this burgeoning field.
Haynes 4th proof 13 December 2017 13/12/2017 15:37 Page xii

XII METADATA FOR INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AND RETRIEVAL

This book covers the basic concepts of metadata and some of the models
that are used for describing and handling it. The main purpose of this book
is to reveal how metadata operates, from the perspective of the user and the
manager. It is primarily concerned with data about document-based
information content – in the broadest sense. Many of the examples will be for
bibliographic materials such as books, e-journals and journal articles.
However, this book also covers metadata about the documentation associated
with museum objects (thus making them information objects), as well as
digital resources such as research data collections, web resources, digitised
images, digital photographs, electronic records, music, sound recordings and
moving images. It is not a book about databases or data modelling, which is
covered elsewhere (Hay, 2006).
Metadata for Information Management and Retrieval is international in
coverage and sets out to introduce the concepts behind metadata. It focuses
on the ways metadata is used to manage and retrieve information. It
discusses the role of metadata in information governance as well as exploring
its use in the context of social media, linked open data and big data. The book
is intended for museums, libraries, archives and records management
professionals, including academic libraries, publishers, and managers of
institutional repositories and research data sets. It will be directly relevant to
students in the iSchools as well as those who are preparing to work in the
library and information professions. It will be of particular interest to the
knowledge organisation and information architecture communities. Managers
of corporate information resources and informed users who need to know
about metadata will also find much that is relevant to them. Finally, this book
is for researchers who deal with large data sets, either as their creators or as
users who need to understand the ways in which that data is described, its
properties and ways of handling and interrogating that data.

David Haynes, August 2017

Haynes 4th proof 13 December 2017 13/12/2017 15:37 Page xiii

Acknowledgements

P
REPARATION OF THIS BOOK would not have been possible without the
support and assistance of many individuals, too numerous to list. I
hope that they will recognise their contributions in this book and will
accept this acknowledgement as thanks. Any shortcomings are entirely my
own.
I would like to thank colleagues at City, University of London. David
Bawden and Lyn Robinson at the Centre for Information Science provided
guidance and encouragement throughout. Andy MacFarlane was an excellent
critic for the early drafts of the chapter on information retrieval. The library
service at City, University of London has been an invaluable resource which,
with the back-up of the British Library, has been essential for the identification
and procurement of relevant literature.
Neil Wilson, Rachael Kotarski, Bill Stockting and Paul Clements at the
British Library, Christopher Hilton at the Wellcome Library and Graham Bell
of EDItEUR all freely gave their time in interviews and follow-up questions.
I would like to acknowledge the contribution made by former colleagues
at CILIP, where I was working when I wrote the first edition. I am also
grateful for the feedback from reviewers, colleagues and students who have
used the book as a text. I am especially grateful for the moral support of the
University of Dundee, where I teach a module on ‘Metadata Standards and
Information Taxonomies’ on their postgraduate course in the Centre for
Archives and Information Studies (CAIS). Teaching that particular course has
helped to shape my thinking and has given me an incentive to read and think
more about metadata.
Many colleagues in the wider library and information profession helped to
clarify specific points about the use of metadata. I would especially like to
Haynes 4th proof 13 December 2017 13/12/2017 15:37 Page xiv

XIV METADATA FOR INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AND RETRIEVAL

thank Gordon Dunsire for going through the manuscript and pointing out
significant issues that I hope have now been addressed.
Finally I would like to thank family, friends and colleagues who have
provided constant encouragement throughout this enterprise.
Haynes 4th proof 13 December 2017 13/12/2017 15:37 Page 1

PART I
Metadata concepts
Part I introduces the concepts that underpin metadata, starting with an
historical perspective. Some examples of metadata that people come across
in their daily life are demonstrated in Chapter 1, along with some alternative
views of metadata and how it might be categorised. This chapter defines the
scope of this book as considering metadata in the context of document
description. Chapter 2 looks at mark-up languages and the development of
schemas as a way of representing metadata standards. It also highlights the
connection between metadata and cataloguing. Chapter 3 looks at different
ways of modelling data with specific reference to the Resource Description
Framework (RDF). It describes the Library Reference Model (LRM) and its
impact on current cataloguing systems. Chapter 4 discusses cataloguing and
metadata standards and ways of representing metadata. It introduces RDA,
MARC, BIBFRAME as well as standards used in records management, digital
repositories and non-textual materials such as images, video and sound.
Haynes 4th proof 13 December 2017 13/12/2017 15:37 Page 2
Haynes 4th proof 13 December 2017 13/12/2017 15:37 Page 3

CHAPTER 1
Introduction

Overview
This chapter sets out to introduce the concepts behind metadata and illustrate them with
historical examples of metadata use. Some of these uses predate the term ‘metadata’. The
development of metadata is placed in the context of the history of cataloguing, as well as
parallel developments in other disciplines. Indeed, one of the ideas behind this book is that
metadata and cataloguing are strongly related and that there is considerable overlap
between the two. Pomerantz (2015) and Gartner (2016) have made a similar connection,
although Zeng and Qin (2015) emphasise the distinction between cataloguing and
metadata. This leads to discussion of the definitions of ‘metadata’ and a suggested form
of words that is appropriate for this book. Examples of metadata use in e-publishing,
libraries, archives and research data collections are used to illustrate the concept. The
chapter then considers why metadata is important in the wider digital environment and
some of the political issues that arise. This approach provides a way of assessing the
models of metadata in terms of its use and its management. The chapter finally introduces
the idea that metadata can be viewed in terms of the purposes to which it is put.

Why metadata?
If anyone wondered about the importance of metadata, the Snowden
revelations about US government data-gathering activities should leave no
one in any doubt. Stuart Baker, the NSA (National Security Agency) General
Counsel, said ‘Metadata tells you everything about somebody’s life. If you
have enough metadata you don’t really need content’ (Schneier, 2015, 23). The
routine gathering of metadata about telephone calls originating outside the
Haynes 4th proof 13 December 2017 13/12/2017 15:37 Page 4

4 PART I METADATA CONCEPTS

USA or calls to foreign countries from the USA caused a great deal of concern,
not only among American citizens but also among the US’s strongest allies and
trading partners. The UK’s Investigatory Powers Act (UK Parliament, 2016)
requires communications providers to keep metadata records of commun-
ications via public networks (including the postal network) to facilitate security
surveillance and criminal investigations. As Jacob Appelbaum said when the
Wikileaks controversy first blew up, ‘Metadata in aggregate is content’
(Democracy Now, 2013). His point was that when metadata from different
sources is aggregated it can be used to reconstruct the information content of
communications that have taken place.
Although metadata has only recently become a topic for public discussion,
it pervades our lives in many ways. Anyone who uses a library catalogue is
dealing with metadata. Since the first edition of this book the idea of metadata
librarians or even metadata managers has gained traction. Job advertisements
often focus on making digital resources available to users. Roles that would
have previously been described in terms of cataloguing and indexing are
being expressed in the language of metadata. Re-use of data depends on
metadata standards that allow different data sources to be linked to provide
innovative new services. Many apps on mobile devices depend on combining
location with live data feeds for transportation, air quality or property prices,
for example. They depend on metadata.

Fundamental principles of metadata

Some historical background
Although the term ‘metadata’ is a recent one, many of the concepts and
techniques of metadata creation, management and use originated with the
development of library catalogues. If we regard books and scrolls as
information objects, a book catalogue could be seen to be a collection of
metadata. It contains data about information objects. An understanding of
what people tried to do before the term ‘metadata’ was coined helps to
explain the concept of metadata. The historical background also gives a
perspective on why metadata has become so important in recent years.
The idea of cataloguing information has been around at least since the
Alexandrian Library in ancient Egypt. Callimachus of Cyrene (305–235 BC),
the poet and author, was a librarian at Alexandria. He is widely credited with
creating the first catalogue, the Pinakes, of the Alexandrian Library’s 500,000
scrolls. The catalogue was itself a work of 120 scrolls with titles grouped by
subject and genre. This could be seen as the first recorded compilation of
metadata. Gartner (2016) provides an elegant description of the history of
metadata from antiquity to the present.
Haynes 4th proof 13 December 2017 13/12/2017 15:37 Page 5

INTRODUCTION 5

In Western Europe library cataloguing developed in the ecclesiastical and,

later, academic libraries. In the eighth century AD the books donated by
Gregory the Great to the Church of St Clement in Rome were catalogued in
the form of a prayer. During the same era, Alcuin of York (735–804) developed
a metrical catalogue for the cathedral library at York. Cataloguing developed,
so that by the 14th century the location of books started to appear in catalogue
records and by the 16th century the first alphabetical arrangements began to
appear. Up until that time catalogues were used as inventories of stock rather
than for finding books or for managing collections.
Modern library catalogues date back to the French code of 1791, the first
national cataloguing code with author entry, which used catalogue cards and
rules of accessioning and guiding. Cataloguing rules (an important aspect of
metadata) were developed by Sir Anthony Panizzi for the British Museum
Library and these were published in 1841. In the USA Charles A. Cutter
prepared Rules of a Dictionary Catalog, which was published in 1876. The
American Library Association and the Library Association in the UK both
developed cataloguing rules around the start of the 20th century. This led to
an agreement in 1904 to co-operate to produce an international cataloguing
code, which was published as separate American and British editions in 1908.
Later, the International Conference on Cataloguing Principles in Paris in
1961 established a set of principles on the choice and form of headings in
author/title catalogues. These were incorporated into the first edition of the
Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules (AACR) in 1967, published in two
versions by the Library Association and the American Library Association
(Joint Steering Committee for Revision of AACR & CILIP, 2002).The
International Standard Bibliographic Descriptions (ISBDs) were developed
by IFLA, the International Federation of Library Associations, and were
incorporated into the second edition of the Anglo-American Cataloguing
Rules (AACR2), published in 1978. ISBD specifies the sources of information
used to describe a publication, the order in which the data elements appear
and the punctuation used to separate the elements. Material-specific ISBDs
were merged into a consolidated edition (IFLA, 2011). AACR2 specifies how
the values of the data elements are determined. This was an important
development because it made catalogues more interchangeable and allowed
for conversion into machine-readable form (Bowman, 2003).
In the mid-1960s computers started being used for the purpose of
cataloguing and a new standard for the data format of catalogue records,
MARC (Machine Readable Cataloguing) was established. MARC covers all
kinds of library materials and is usable in automated library management
systems. Although MARC was initially used to process and generate
catalogue cards more quickly, libraries soon started to use this as a means of
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6 PART I METADATA CONCEPTS

exchanging cataloguing data, which helped to reduce the cost of cataloguing

original materials. The availability of MARC records stimulated the
development of searchable electronic catalogues. The user benefited from
wider access to searchable catalogues, and later on to union catalogues, which
allowed them to search several library catalogues at once. Different versions
of MARC emerged, largely based on national variations e.g. USMARC,
UKMARC and Norway’s NORMARC. Although the different MARC
versions were designed to reflect the particular needs and interests of different
countries or communities of interest, this inhibited international exchange of
records. It was only with the widespread adoption of MARC 21 by the
national bibliographic authorities that a degree of harmonisation of national
bibliographies was achieved.
The growth of electronic catalogues and the development of textual
databases able to handle summaries of published articles demanded new
skills, which in turn contributed to the development of information science
as a discipline. Information scientists developed many of the early electronic
catalogues and bibliographic databases (Feather and Sturges, 1997). They
adapted library cataloguing rules for an electronic environment and did much
of the pioneering work on information retrieval theory, including the
measures of precision and recall which are discussed in Chapter 6.
Although metadata was first used in library catalogues it is now widely
used in records management, the publishing industry, the recording industry,
government, the geospatial community and among statisticians. Its success
as an approach may be because it provides the tools to describe electronic
information resources, allowing for more consistent retrieval, better
management of data sources and exchange of data records between
applications and organisations.
Vellucci (1998) suggested that the term ‘metadata’ dates back to the 1960s
but became established in the context of Database Management Systems
(DBMS) in the 1970s. The first reference to ‘meta-data’ can be traced back to
a PhD dissertation, ‘An infological approach to data bases’, which made the
distinction between (Sundgren 1973):

• objects (real-world phenomena)

• information about the object
• data representing information about the object (i.e. meta-data).

The term began to be widely used in the database research community by the
mid-1970s.
A parallel development occurred in the geographical information systems
(GIS) community and in particular the digital spatial information discipline.
Haynes 4th proof 13 December 2017 13/12/2017 15:37 Page 7

INTRODUCTION 7

In the late 1980s and early 1990s there was considerable activity within the
GIS community to develop metadata standards to encourage interoperability
between systems. Because government (especially local government) activity
often requires data to describe location, there are significant benefits to be
gained from a standard to describe location or spatial position across
databases and agencies. The metadata associated with location data has
allowed organisations to maintain their often considerable internal
investments in geospatial data, while still co-operating with other
organisations and institutions. Metadata is a way of sharing details of their
data in catalogues of geographic information, clearing houses or via vendors
of information. Metadata also gives users the information they need to process
and interpret a particular set of geospatial data.
In the mid-1990s the idea of a core set of semantics for web-based resources
was put forward for categorising the web and to enhance retrieval. This
became known as the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI), which has
established a standard for describing web content and which is not discipline-
or language-specific. The DCMI defines a set of data elements which can be
used as containers for metadata. The metadata is embedded in the resource,
or it may be stored separately from the resource. Although developed with
web resources in mind it is widely used for other types of document,
including non-digital resources such as books and pictures. DCMI is an
ongoing initiative which continues to develop tools for using Dublin Core.
This position was questioned by Gorman (2004), who suggested that
metadata schemes such as Dublin Core are merely subsets of much more
sophisticated frameworks such as MARC (Machine Readable Cataloguing).
He suggested that without authority control and use of controlled vocab-
ularies, Dublin Core and other metadata schemes cannot achieve their aim of
improving the precision and recall from a large database (such as web
resources on the internet). His solution is that existing metadata standards
should be enriched to bring them up to the standards of cataloguing.
However, his arguments depend on a distinction being drawn between ‘full
cataloguing’ and ‘metadata’. An alternative view (and one supported in this
book) is that cataloguing produces metadata. Gorman is certainly right in
suggesting that metadata will not be particularly useful unless it is created in
line with more rigorous cataloguing approaches.
All these metadata traditions have come together as the different
communities have become aware of the others’ activities and have started to
work together. The DCMI involved the database and the LIS communities
from the beginning with the first workshop in 1995 in Dublin, Ohio, and has
gradually drawn in other groups that manage and use metadata.
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8 PART I METADATA CONCEPTS

Looking at existing trends, therefore, metadata is becoming more widely

recognised and it is becoming a part of the specification of IT applications
and software products. For example, ISO 15489 (ISO, 2016a), the international
standard for records management, specifies minimum metadata standards.
Library management systems, institutional repositories and enterprise
management systems handle resources that contain embedded metadata,
which they are exploiting to enhance retrieval and data exchange. As a result,
suppliers often incorporate metadata standards into their products.
This brief history of metadata demonstrates that it had several starting
points and arose independently in different quarters. In the 1990s, wider
awareness about metadata began and the work of bodies such as the Dublin
Core Metadata Initiative has done a great deal to raise the profile of metadata
and its widespread use in different communities. It has become an established
part of the information environment today. However, its history does mean
that there are distinct differences in the understanding of metadata and it is
necessary to develop some universal definitions of the term. In the time since
the publication of the previous edition of this book there have been a number
of significant developments, which are reflected in the modified chapter
structure of the book. Online social networking services have taken hold and
become a pervasive environment. This has led to unparalleled volumes of
transactional data, which is tracked and analysed to enable service providers
to sell digital advertising services. This has become a major revenue earner
for some of the largest corporations currently in existence, such as Facebook,
Alphabet and Microsoft. The data about these transactions is metadata and
this has become a tradable commodity. The concluding chapter (Chapter 14)
discusses the implications of metadata and social media.
RDA (Resource Description and Access) was in development in 2004 and
has now been adopted by major bibliographic authorities such as the Library
of Congress and the British Library, replacing AACR2. At the time of writing
BIBFRAME was due to be adopted as the replacement for MARC for encoding
bibliographic data (metadata). These developments are covered in Chapter 4
on metadata standards.
Another significant development is the establishment of services and
approaches based on the semantic web, first proposed by Tim Berners-Lee
(1998). The use of the Resource Description Framework (RDF) has facilitated
the development of linked data architecture using metadata to connect
different information resources together to create new services. Two aspects
of linked data are discussed in Chapter 12, where the practicalities of
managing metadata are covered, and in Chapter 13 where linked open data
is treated as an example of use of metadata in very large data collections.
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INTRODUCTION 9

The politics of information, and in particular metadata, have become more

prominent in the intervening years between the first and second editions of
this book. A whole new chapter (Chapter 10) on information governance
covers issues of privacy, security and freedom of information. It also considers
the role of metadata in compliance with legislative requirements. The
concluding chapter (Chapter 14) also discusses some of the implications of
metadata use in the context of online advertising and in social media.

What is metadata?
Although there is an attractive simplicity in the original definition, ‘Metadata
is data about data’, it does not adequately reflect current usage, nor does it
describe the complexity of the subject.
At this stage it is worth interrogating the idea of metadata more fully. The
concept of metadata has arisen from several different intellectual traditions.
The different usages of metadata reflect the priorities of the communities that
use metadata. One could speculate about whether there is a common
understanding of what metadata is, and whether there is a definition that is
generally applicable.
Metadata was originally referred to as ‘meta-data’, which emphasises the
two word fragments that make up the term. The word fragment ‘meta’, which
comes from the Greek ‘μετα’, translates into several distinct meanings in
English. In this context it can be taken to mean a higher or superior view of
the word it prefixes. In other words, metadata is data about data or data that
describes data (or information). In current usage the ‘data’ in ‘metadata’ is
widely interpreted as information, information resource or information-
containing entity. This allows inclusion of documentary materials in different
formats and on different media.
Although metadata is widely used in the database and programming
professions, the focus in this book is on information resources managed in
the museums, libraries and archives communities. Some in the library and
information community defined metadata in terms of function or purpose.
However, in this context metadata has more wide-ranging purposes,
including retrieval and management of information resources, as we see in
an early definition:

any data that aids in the identification, description and location of networked
electronic resources. . . . Another important function provided by metadata is
control of the electronic resource, whether through ownership and provenance
metadata for validating information and tracking use; rights and permissions
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10 PART I METADATA CONCEPTS

metadata for controlling access; or content ratings metadata, a key component of

some Web filtering applications. (Hudgins, Agnew and Brown, 1999)

In his introduction to Metadata: a cataloger’s primer Richard Smiraglia provides

a definition that encompasses discovery and management of information
resources:

Metadata are structure, encoded data that describe the characteristics of

information-bearing entities to aid in the identification, discovery, assessment
and management of the described entities. (Smiraglia, 2005, 4)

Pomerantz (2015, 21–2) talks about metadata often describing containers for
data, such as books. He also suggests that metadata records are themselves
containers for descriptions of data and its containers and arrives at the
following definition of metadata: ‘a potentially informative object that
describes another potentially informative object’ (Pomerantz, 2015, 26). Zeng
and Qin (2015, 11) talk about metadata in the following terms: ‘metadata
encapsulate the information that describes any information-bearing entity’,
before switching their attention to bibliographic metadata and components
of metadata as described in Dublin Core. Gilliland also talks in terms of
information objects:

Perhaps a more useful, ‘big picture’ way of thinking about metadata is as the
sum total of what one can say about any information object at any level of
aggregation. In this context, an information object is anything that can be
addressed and manipulated as a discrete entity by a human being or an
information system. (Gilliland, 2016)

A further description is proposed to cover the range of situations in which

metadata is used, while still making meaningful distinctions from the wider
set of data about objects. If the object (say a packet of cereal on the super-
market shelf) is not an information resource, then data about that object is
merely data, not metadata. This is in contrast to Zeng and Qin (2015, 4), who
talk about a food label as containing metadata.
This book focuses primarily on metadata associated with documents, which
can be defined as information-containing artefacts, often held in memory
institutions such as libraries, archives and museums. Robinson (2009; 2015) has
built on the idea of the information chain, extending it beyond the original
domain of published scientific information (Duff, 1997). Buckland (1997) talks
about the document as evidence and considers how digital documents sit with
this. This thinking has also been applied to museum objects (Latham, 2012).
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INTRODUCTION 11

What does metadata look like?

Some metadata is not designed for human view, because it is transient and
used for exchange of data between systems. Human-readable examples of
metadata range from html meta-tags on web pages to MARC 21 or
BIBFRAME records used for exchanging cataloguing data between library
management systems. The metadata can be expressed in a structured
language such as XML (Extensible Markup Language) or the Resource
Description Framework (RDF) and may follow guidelines or schema for
particular domains of activity.
The two examples below show metadata associated with different types of
information resource. The first is an extract taken from the British Library’s
main catalogue:

Title: Sapiens: a brief history of humankind / Yuval Noah Harari.

Author: Yuval N. Harari, author.
Subjects: Human beings — History;
Dewey: 599.909
Publication Details: London: Vintage Books, [2015?]
Language: English
Identifier: ISBN 9780099590088 (pbk)

The field names are highlighted in bold – these are equivalent to the data
elements in a metadata record. The content of each field, the metadata content,
appears alongside the field name. This same cataloguing information can be
displayed in other formats such as MARC 21.
The second example is of metadata from the home page of the Library of
Congress website, Figure 1.1 on the next page. The form displays embedded
metadata using a variety of standards. The top part of the form consists of
metadata automatically extracted from the page coding. The lower part of the
form lists metadata that the page has been tagged with according to various
metadata standards. The ‘dc:’ label refers to Dublin Core. The ‘og:’ tag refers
to Open Graph metadata.

Purposes of metadata
Metadata is something which you collect for a particular purpose, rather than
being a bunch of data you collect just because it is there or because you have
some public duty to collect (Bell, 2016). One of the main drivers for the
evolution of metadata standards is the use to which the metadata is put, its
purpose. Even within the library and information profession, a wide range
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12 PART I METADATA CONCEPTS

Figure 1.1 Metadata from the Library of Congress home page

of metadata purposes has been identified. Two of the most useful models
provide a basis for the purposes of metadata described in this book.
In the first model Day (2001) suggested that metadata has seven distinct
purposes. He starts with resource description – identifying and describing
the entity that the metadata is about. The second purpose is focused on
information retrieval – and in the context of web resources this is called
‘resource discovery’. This is one of the primary focuses of the Dublin Core
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INTRODUCTION 13

Metadata Initiative. He recognises that metadata is used for administering

and managing resources (purpose 3) – for instance, flagging items for update
after set periods of time have elapsed. The fourth purpose, intellectual
property rights, is very important in the context of e-commerce. E-commerce
has not been listed as a purpose in its own right, possibly because Day’s
model is oriented towards web resources. Documenting software and
hardware environments, the fifth purpose provides contextual information
about a resource, but will not apply to every resource. This could be seen as
one aspect of resource description. Day’s sixth purpose, preservation
management, is a specialised form of administrative metadata and could be
incorporated into purpose 3, managing information. Finally, providing
information on context and authenticity is important in archives and records
management, where being able to demonstrate the authenticity of a record is
a part of good governance. For collection management, the provenance of
individual items may affect their value. Table 1 summarises the seven
purposes of metadata identified by Day.

Table 1.1 Day’s model of metadata purposes

1 Resource description
2 Resource discovery
3 Administration and management of resources
4 Record of intellectual property rights
5 Documenting software and hardware environments
6 Preservation management of digital resources
7 Providing information on context and authenticity

Gilliland (2016) takes a slightly different approach, although she also classifies
metadata according to purpose. The use of metadata is categorised into more
specific sub-categories. This means that a metadata scheme as well as
individual metadata elements could fall into several different categories
simultaneously. Gilliland provides some useful examples of the metadata that
falls under each type (Table 1.2). There is some common ground with Day, in
that they both identify: administration (equivalent to management and
administration); description (encompassing information retrieval or resource
discovery); and preservation as key purposes of metadata. The technical
metadata in Gilliland corresponds to ‘Documenting hardware and software
environments’ in Day. The ‘Use’ metadata could include transactional data
as would be seen in an e-commerce system or could provide an audit trail for
documents in a records management system.
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14 PART I METADATA CONCEPTS

Table 1.2 Different types of metadata and their functions, extracted from Gilliland (2016)

Category Definition Example

Administrative Metadata used in managing • Acquisition and appraisal information

and administering • Rights and reproduction tracking
collections and information • Documentation of legal, cultural, and
resources community-access requirements and
protocols
• Location information
• Selection criteria for digitization
• Digital repatriation documentation
Descriptive Metadata used to identify, • Metadata generated by original creator
authenticate, and describe and system
collections and related • Submission-information package
trusted information • Cataloging records
resources • Finding aids
• Version control
• Specialised indexes
• Curatorial information
• Linked relationships among resources
• Descriptions, annotations, and
emendations by creators and other users
Preservation Metadata related to the • Documentation of physical condition of
preservation management resources
of collections and • Documentation of actions taken to
information resources preserve physical and digital versions of
resources (e.g. data refreshing and
migration)
• Documentation of any changes occurring
during digitization or preservation
Technical Metadata related to how a • Hardware and software documentation
system functions or • System-generated procedural
metadata behaves information (e.g. routing and event
metadata)
• Technical digitization information (e.g.
formats, compression ratios, scaling
routines)
• Tracking of system-response times
• Authentication and security data (e.g.
encryption keys, passwords)
Use Metadata related to the • Circulation records
level and type of use of • Physical and digital exhibition records
collections and information • Use and user tracking
resources • Content re-use and multiversioning
information
• Search logs
• Rights metadata

There is a lot of common ground between these two models and although
neither of them specifically mentions ‘interoperability’ as a purpose, it is
alluded to. For instance, Day’s purpose 5 – ‘documenting software and
hardware environments’, touches on one aspect of interoperability and the
Other documents randomly have
different content
notion! Our Sages expressed this idea in the formula, “In the world
above there is neither sitting nor standing (ʻamidah)”; for the two
verbs ʻamad and kam are synonyms [and what is said about the
former is also applicable to the latter]. [25]

[Contents]
 CHAPTER XIII
The term ʻamad (he stood) is a homonym signifying in the first
instance “to stand upright,” as “When he stood (be-ʻomdo) before
Pharaoh” (Gen. xli. 46); “Though Moses and Samuel stood
(yaʻamod)” (Jer. xv. 1); “He stood by them” (Gen. xviii. 8). It further
denotes “cessation and interruption,” as “but they stood still
(ʻamedu) and answered no more” (Job xxxii. 16); “and she ceased
(va-taʻamod) to bear” (Gen. xxix. 35). Next it signifies “to be
enduring and lasting,” as, “that they may continue (yo-ʻamedu)
many days” (Jer. xxxii. 14); “Then shalt thou be able to endure
(ʻamod)” (Exod. xviii. 23); “His taste remained (ʻamad) in him” (Jer.
xlviii. 11), i.e., it has continued and remained in existence without
any change; “His righteousness standeth for ever” (Ps. cxi. 3), i.e., it
is permanent and everlasting. The verb applied to God must be
understood in this latter sense, as in Zechariah xiv. 4, “And his feet
shall stand (ve-ʻamedu) in that day upon the Mount of Olives” (Zech.
xiv. 4), “His causes, i.e., the events of which He is the cause, will
remain efficient,” etc. This will be further elucidated when we speak
of the meaning of regel (foot). (Vide infra, chap, xxviii.) In the same
sense is this verb employed in Deuteronomy v. 28, “But as for thee,
stand thou here by me,” and Deuteronomy v. 5, “I stood between
the Lord and you.”

[Contents]
 CHAPTER XIV
The homonymous term adam is in the first place the name of the
first man, being, as Scripture indicates, derived from adamah,
“earth.” Next, it means “mankind,” as “My spirit shall not strive with
man (adam)” (Gen. vi. 3). Again “Who knoweth the spirit of the
children of man (adam)” (Eccles. iii. 21); “so that a man (adam) has
no pre-eminence above a beast” (Eccles. iii. 19). Adam signifies also
“the multitude,” “the lower classes” as opposed to those
distinguished from the rest, as “Both low (bene adam) and high
(bene ish)” (Ps. xlix. 3).

It is in this third signification that it occurs in the verses, “The sons

of the higher order (Elohim) saw the daughters of the lower order
(adam)” (Gen. vi. 2); and “Forsooth! as the humble man (adam) you
shall die” (Ps. lxxxii. 7).

[Contents]
 CHAPTER XV
Although the two roots naẓab and yaẓab are distinct, yet their
meaning is, as you know, identical in all their various forms.

The verb has several meanings: in some instances it signifies “to

stand” or “to place oneself,” as “And his sister stood (va-tetaẓẓab)
afar off” (Exod. ii. 4); “The kings of the earth set themselves”
(yityaẓẓebu) (Ps. ii. 2); “They came out and stood” (niẓẓabim) (Num.
xvi. 27). In other instances it denotes continuance and permanence,
as, “Thy word is established (niẓẓab) in Heaven” (Ps. cxix. 89), i.e., it
remains for ever.

Whenever this term is applied to God it must be understood in the

latter sense, as, “And, behold, the Lord stood (niẓẓab) upon it” (Gen.
xxviii. 13), i.e., appeared as eternal and everlasting “upon it,”
namely, upon the ladder, [26]the upper end of which reached to
heaven, while the lower end touched the earth. This ladder all may
climb up who wish to do so, and they must ultimately attain to a
knowledge of Him who is above the summit of the ladder, because
He remains upon it permanently. It must be well understood that the
term “upon it” is employed by me in harmony with this metaphor.
“Angels of God” who were going up represent the prophets. That the
term “angel” was applied to prophets may clearly be seen in the
following passages: “He sent an angel” (Num. xx. 16); “And an angel
of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim” (Judges ii. 1). How
suggestive, too, is the expression “ascending and descending on it”!
The ascent is mentioned before the descent, inasmuch as the
“ascending” and arriving at a certain height of the ladder precedes
the “descending,” i.e., the application of the knowledge acquired in
the ascent for the training and instruction of mankind. This
application is termed “descent,” in accordance with our explanation
of the term yarad (chapter x.).

To return to our subject. The phrase “stood upon it” indicates the
permanence and constancy of God, and does not imply the idea of
physical position. This is also the sense of the phrase “Thou shalt
stand upon the rock” (Exod. xxxiii. 21). It is therefore clear that
niẓẓab and ʻamad are identical in this figurative signification. Comp.
“Behold, I will stand (ʻomed) before thee there upon the rock in
Horeb” (Exod. xvii. 6).

[Contents]
 CHAPTER XVI
The word ẓur (rock) is a homonym. First, it denotes “rock,” as “And
thou shalt smite the rock” (ẓur) (Exod. xvii. 6). Then, “hard stone,”
like the flint, e.g., “Knives of stone” (ẓurim) (Josh. v. 2). It is next
employed to signify the quarry from which the stones are hewn;
comp. “Look unto the rock (ẓur) whence ye are hewn” (Isa. li. 1).
From this latter meaning of the term another figurative notion was
subsequently derived, viz., “the root and origin” of all things. It is on
this account that after the words “Look to the rock whence ye are
hewn,” the Prophet continues, “Look unto Abraham your father,”
from which we evidently may infer that the words “Abraham your
father” serve to explain “the rock whence ye are hewn”; and that the
Prophet meant to say, “Walk in his ways, put faith in his instruction,
and conduct yourselves according to the rule of his life! for the
properties contained in the quarry should be found again in those
things which are formed and hewn out of it.”

It is in the latter sense that the Almighty is called “rock,” He being

the origin and the causa efficiens of all things besides Himself. Thus
we read, “He is the Rock, His work is perfect” (Deut. xxxii. 4); “Of
the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful” (Deut. xxxii. 18);
“Their Rock had sold them” (xxxi. 30); “There is no rock like our
God” (1 Sam. ii. 2): “The Rock of Eternity” (Isa. xxvi. 4). Again, “And
thou shalt stand upon the Rock” (Exod. xxxiii. 21), i.e., Be firm and
steadfast in the conviction that God is the source of all things, for
this will lead you towards the knowledge of the Divine Being. We
have shown (chap. viii.) that the words “Behold, a place is with me”
(Exod. xxxiii. 21) contain the same idea. [27]
[Contents]
 CHAPTER XVII
Do not imagine that only Metaphysics should be taught with reserve
to the common people and to the uninitiated; for the same is also
the case with the greater part of Natural Science. In this sense we
have repeatedly made use of the expression of the Sages, “Do not
expound the chapter on the Creation in the presence of two” [vide
Introd. page 2]. This principle was not peculiar to our Sages; ancient
philosophers and scholars of other nations were likewise wont to
treat of the principia rerum obscurely, and to use figurative language
in discussing such subjects. Thus Plato and his predecessors called
Substance the female, and Form the male. (You are aware that the
principia of all existing transient things are three, viz., Substance,
Form, and Absence of a particular form; the last-named principle is
always inherent in the substance, for otherwise the substance would
be incapable of receiving a new form; and it is from this point of
view that absence [of a particular form] is included among the
principia. As soon, then, as a substance has received a certain form,
the privation of that form, namely, of that which has just been
received, has ceased, and is replaced by the privation of another
form, and so on with all possible forms, as is explained in treatises
on natural philosophy.)—Now, if those philosophers who have
nothing to fear from a lucid explanation of these metaphysical
subjects still were in the habit of discussing them in figures and
metaphors, how much more should we, having the interest of
religion at heart, refrain from elucidating to the mass any subject
that is beyond their comprehension, or that might be taken in a
sense directly opposite to the one intended. This also deserves
attention.
[Contents]
 CHAPTER XVIII
The three words karab, “to come near,” nagaʻ, “to touch,” and
nagash, “to approach,” sometimes signify “contact” or “nearness in
space,” sometimes the approach of man’s knowledge to an object, as
if it resembled the physical approach of one body to another. As to
the use of karab in the first meaning, viz., to draw near a certain
spot, comp. “As he drew near (karab) the camp” (Exod. xxxii. 19);
“And Pharaoh drew near (hikrib)” (Exod. xiv. 10). Nagaʻ, in the first
sense, viz., expressing the contact of two bodies, occurs in “And she
cast it (va-taggaʻ) at his feet” (Exod. iv. 25); “He caused it to touch
(va-yaggaʻ) my mouth” (Isa. vi. 7). And nagash in the first sense,
viz., to approach or move towards another person, is found, e.g., in
“And Judah drew near (va-yiggash) unto him” (Gen. xliv. 1).

The second meaning of these three words is “approach by means of

knowledge,” or “contact by comprehension,” not in reference to
space. As to nagaʻ in this second sense, comp. “for her judgment
reacheth (nagaʻ) unto heaven” (Jer. li. 9). An instance of karab being
used in this meaning is contained in the following passage, “And the
cause that is too hard for you, bring (takribun) it unto me” (Deut. i.
17); this is equivalent to saying, “Ye shall make it known unto me.”
The verb karab (in the Hiphil) is thus employed in the sense of
giving information concerning a thing. The verb nagash is used
figuratively in the phrase, “And Abraham drew near (va-yiggash),
and said” (Gen. xviii. 23); this took place in a prophetic vision and
[28]in a trance, as will be explained (Part I. chap, xxi., and Part II.
chap, xli.); also in “Forasmuch as this people draw near (niggash)
me with their mouths and with their lips” (Isa. xxix. 13). Wherever a
word denoting approach or contact is employed in the prophetic
writings to describe a certain relation between the Almighty and any
created being, it has to be understood in this latter sense [viz., to
approach mentally]. For, as will be proved in this treatise (II. chap,
iv.), the Supreme is incorporeal, and consequently He does not
approach or draw near a thing, nor can aught approach or touch
Him; for when a being is without corporeality, it cannot occupy
space, and all idea of approach, contact, distance, conjunction,
separation, touch, or proximity is inapplicable to such a being.

There can be no doubt respecting the verses “The Lord is nigh

(karob) unto all them that call upon him” (Ps. cxlv. 18); “They take
delight in approaching (kirbat) to God” (Isa. lviii. 2); “The nearness
(kirbat) of God is pleasant to me” (Ps. lxxiii. 28); all such phrases
intimate a spiritual approach, i.e., the attainment of some
knowledge, not, however, approach in space. Thus also “who hath
God so nigh (kerobim) unto him” (Deut. iv. 7); “Draw thou near
(kerab) and hear” (Deut. v. 27); “And Moses alone shall draw near
(ve-niggash) the Lord; but they shall not come nigh (yiggashu)”
(Exod. xxiv. 2).

If, however, you wish to take the words “And Moses shall draw near”
to mean that he shall draw near a certain place in the mountain,
whereon the Divine Light shone, or, in the words of the Bible,
“where the glory of the Lord abode,” you may do so, provided you
do not lose sight of the truth that there is no difference whether a
person stand at the centre of the earth or at the highest point of the
ninth sphere, if this were possible; he is no further away from God in
the one case, or nearer to Him in the other; those only approach
Him who obtain a knowledge of Him; while those who remain
ignorant of Him recede from Him. In this approach towards, or
recession from God there are numerous grades one above the other,
and I shall further elucidate, in one of the subsequent chapters of
the Treatise (I. chap, lx., and II. chap, xxxvi.) what constitutes the
difference in our perception of God.
In the passage, “Touch (gaʻ) the mountains, and they shall smoke”
(Ps. cxliv. 5), the verb “touch” is used in a figurative sense, viz., “Let
thy word touch them.” So also the words, “Touch thou him himself”
(Job ii. 5), have the same meaning as “Bring thy infliction upon him.”
In a similar manner must this verb, in whatever form it may be
employed, be interpreted in each place, according to the context; for
in some cases it denotes contact of two material objects, in others
knowledge and comprehension of a thing, as if he who now
comprehends anything which he had not comprehended previously
had thereby approached a subject which had been distant from him.
This point is of considerable importance.

[Contents]
 CHAPTER XIX
The term male is a homonym which denotes that one substance
enters another, and fills it, as “And she filled (va-temalle) her
pitcher” (Gen. xxiv. 16); “An omer-full (melo) for each” (Exod. xvi.
32), and many other instances. Next, it signifies the expiration or
completion of a fixed period [29]of time, as “And when her days to be
delivered were fulfilled (va-yimleü)” (Gen. xxv. 24); “And forty days
were completed (va-yimleü) for him” (Gen. l. 3). It further denotes
attainment of the highest degree of excellency, as “Full (male) with
the blessing of the Lord” (Deut. xxxiii. 23); “Them hath he filled
(mille) with wisdom of heart” (Exod. xxxv. 35); “He was filled (va-
yimmale) with wisdom, and understanding, and cunning” (1 Kings
vii. 14). In this sense it is said “The whole earth is full (melo) of his
glory” (Isa. vi. 4), “All the earth gives evidence of his perfection,” i.e.
leads to a knowledge of it. Thus also “The glory of the Lord filled
(male) the tabernacle” (Exod. xl. 34); and, in fact, every application
of the word to God must be interpreted in this manner; and not that
He has a body occupying space. If, on the other hand, you prefer to
think that in this passage by “the glory of the Lord,” a certain light
created for the purpose is to be understood, that such light is always
termed “glory,” and that such light “filled the tabernacle,” we have
no objection.

[Contents]
 CHAPTER XX
The word ram (high) is a homonym, denoting elevation in space,
and elevation in dignity, i.e., greatness, honour, and power. It has
the first meaning in “And the ark was lifted up (va-tarom) above the
earth” (Gen. vii. 17); and the latter meaning in “I have exalted
(harimoti) one chosen out of the people” (Ps. lxxxix. 20);
“Forasmuch as I have exalted (harimoti) thee from amongst the
dust” (1 Kings xvi. 2); “Forasmuch as I exalted (harimoti) thee from
among the people” (1 Kings xiv. 7).

Whenever this term is employed in reference to God, it must be

taken in the second sense: “Be thou exalted (rumah), O God, above
the heavens” (Ps. lvii. 12). In the same manner does the root nasa
(to lift up) denote both elevation in space and elevation in rank and
dignity. In the former sense it occurs in “And they lifted up (va-
yisseü) their corn upon their asses” (Gen. xlii. 26); and there are
many instances like this in which this verb has the meaning “to
carry,” “to move” from place to place; for this implies elevation in
space. In the second sense we have “And his kingdom shall be
exalted” (ve-tinnase) (Num. xxiv. 7); “And he bare them, and carried
them” (va-yenasseëm) (Isa. lxiii. 9); “Wherefore do ye exalt
yourselves” (titnasseü) (Num. xvi. 3).

Every form of this verb when applied to God has this latter sense—
e.g., “Lift up thyself (hinnase), thou judge of the earth” (Ps. xciv. 2);
“Thus saith the High (ram) and Exalted (nissa) One” (Isa. lvii. 15)—
denoting elevation in rank, quality, and power, and not elevation in
space.
You may be surprised that I employ the expression, “elevation in
rank, quality, and power,” and you may say, “How can you assert
that several distinct expressions denote the same thing?” It will be
explained later on (chap. l. seqq.) that those who possess a true
knowledge of God do not consider that He possesses many
attributes, but believe that these various attributes which describe
His Might, Greatness, Power, Perfection, Goodness, etc., are
identical, denoting His Essence, and not anything extraneous to His
Essence. I shall devote special chapters to the Names and Attributes
of [30]God; our intention here is solely to show that “high and
exalted” in the passage quoted denote elevation in rank, not in
space.

[Contents]
 CHAPTER XXI
In its primary signification the Hebrew ʻabar, “to pass,” refers to the
motion of a body in space, and is chiefly applied to living creatures
moving at some distance in a straight line, e.g., “And He passed over
(ʻabar) before them” (Gen. xxxiii. 3); “Pass (ʻabor) before the
people” (Exod. xvii. 5). Instances of this kind are numerous. The
verb was next applied to the passage of sound through air, as “And
they caused a sound to pass (va-yaʻabiru) throughout the camp”
(Exod. xxxvi. 6); “That I hear the Lord’s people spreading the report”
(maʻabirim) (1 Sam. ii. 24).

Figuratively it denoted the appearance of the Light and the Divine

Presence (Shechinah) which the prophets perceived in their
prophetic visions, as it is said, “And behold a smoking furnace, and a
burning lamp that passed (ʻabar) between those pieces” (Gen. xv.
17). This took place in a prophetic vision, for the narrative
commences, “And a deep sleep fell upon Abram.” The verb has this
latter meaning in Exodus xii. 12, “And I shall pass (ve-ʻabarti)
through the land of Egypt” (denoting “I shall reveal myself,” etc.),
and in all similar phrases.

The verb is next employed to express that a person has gone too far,
and transgressed the usual limit, in the performance of some act, as
“And as a man who is drinking wine has passed (ʻabarv) the proper
limit” (Jer. xxiii. 9).

It is also used figuratively to denote: to abandon one aim, and turn

to a different aim and object, e.g., “He shot an arrow, causing it to
miss the aim (lehaʻabiro)” (1 Sam. xx. 36). This is the sense, it
appears to me, of this verb in “And the Lord passed by (va-yaʻabor)
before his face” (Exod. xxxiv. 6). I take “his face” to mean “the face
of God”; our Teachers likewise interpreted “his face” as being
identical with “the face of God.” And, although this is found in the
midst of Agadic interpretations which would be out of place in this
our work, yet it is some support of our view, that the pronoun “his”
is employed in this passage as a substitute for “God’s”—and the
whole passage could in my opinion be explained as follows: Moses
sought to attain to a certain perception which is called “the
perception of the Divine face,” a term occurring in the phrase “My
face cannot be seen”; but God vouchsafed to him a perception of a
lower degree, viz., the one called, “the seeing of the back,” in the
words, “And thou shalt see my back” (Exod. xxxiii. 23). We have
mentioned this subject in our work Mishneh Torah. Accordingly, it is
stated in the above-mentioned passage that the Lord withheld from
Moses that perception which is termed “the seeing of the Divine
face,” and substituted for it another gift, viz., the knowledge of the
acts attributed to God, which, as I shall explain (chap. liv.) are
considered to be different and separate attributes of the Supreme.
In asserting that God withheld from Moses (the higher knowledge) I
mean to say that this knowledge was unattainable, that by its nature
it was inaccessible to Moses; for man, whilst able to gain perfection
by applying his reasoning faculties to the attainment of what is
within the reach of his intellect, either weakens his reason or loses
[31]it altogether as soon as he ventures to seek a higher degree of
knowledge—as I shall elucidate in one of the chapters of this work—
unless he be granted a special aid from heaven, as is described in
the words, “And I will cover thee with my hand until I pass by”
(Exod. xxxiii. 23).

Onkelos, in translating this verse, adopts the same method which he

applies to the explanation of similar passages, viz., every expression
implying corporeality or corporal properties, when referring to God,
he explains by assuming an ellipsis of a nomen regens before “God,”
thus connecting the expression (of corporeality) with another word
which is supplied, and which governs the genitive “God”; e.g., “And
behold the Lord stood upon it” (Gen. xxviii. 13), he explains, “The
glory of the Lord stood arrayed above it.” Again, “The Lord watch
between me and thee” (Gen. xxxi. 49), he paraphrases, “The word
of the Lord shall watch.” This is his ordinary method in explaining
Scripture. He applies it also to Exod. xxxiv. 6, which he paraphrases,
“The Lord caused his Presence to pass before his face and called.”
According to this rendering the thing which passed was
unquestionably some physical object, the pronoun “his” refers to
Moses, and the phrase ʻal panav is identical with lefanav, “before
him.” Comp. “So went the present over before him” (ʻal panav) (Gen.
xxxii, 22). This is likewise an appropriate and satisfactory
explanation; and I can adduce still further support for the opinion of
Onkelos from the words “while my glory passeth by” (ba-ʻabor)
(Exod. xxxiii. 22), which expressly state that the passing object was
something ascribed to God, not God Himself; and of this Divine glory
it is also said, “until I pass by,” and “And the Lord passed by before
him.”

Should it, however, be considered necessary to assume here an

ellipsis, according to the method of Onkelos, who supplies in some
instances the term “the Glory,” in others “the Word,” and in others
“the Divine Presence,” as the context may require in each particular
case, we may also supply here the word “voice,” and explain the
passage, “And a voice from the Lord passed before him and called.”
We have already shown that the verb ʻabar, “he passed,” can be
applied to the voice, as in “And they caused a voice to pass through
the camp” (Exod. xxxvi. 6). According to this explanation, it was the
voice which called. No objection can be raised to applying the verb
kara (he called) to kol (voice), for a similar phrase occurs in the Bible
in reference to God’s commands to Moses, “He heard the voice
speaking unto him”; and, in the same manner as it can be said “the
voice spoke,” we may also say “the voice called”; indeed, we can
even support this application of the verbs “to say,” and “to call,” to
“the voice,” by parallel passages, as “A voice saith ‘Cry,’ and it says
‘What shall I cry?’ ” (Isa. xl. 6). According to this view, the meaning
of the passage under discussion would be: “A voice of God passed
before him and called, ‘Eternal, Eternal, All-powerful, All-merciful,
and All-gracious!’ ” (The word Eternal is repeated; it is in the
vocative, for the Eternal is the one who is called. Comp. Moses,
Moses! Abraham, Abraham!) This, again, is a very appropriate
explanation of the text.

You will surely not find it strange that this subject, so profound and
difficult, should bear various interpretations; for it will not impair the
force of the argument with which we are here concerned. Either
explanation may be adopted; you may take that grand scene
altogether as a prophetic vision, [32]and the whole occurrence as a
mental operation, and consider that what Moses sought, what was
withheld from him, and what he attained, were things perceived by
the intellect without the use of the senses (as we have explained
above): or you may assume that in addition there was a certain
ocular perception of a material object, the sight of which would
assist intellectual perception. The latter is the view of Onkelos,
unless he assumes that in this instance the ocular perception was
likewise a prophetic vision, as was the case with “a smoking furnace
and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces” (Gen. xv.
17), mentioned in the history of Abraham. You may also assume that
in addition there was a perception of sound, and that there was a
voice which passed before him, and was undoubtedly something
material. You may choose either of these opinions, for our sole
intention and purpose is to guard you against the belief that the
phrase “and the Lord passed,” is analogous to “pass before the
people” (Exod. xvii. 5), for God, being incorporeal, cannot be said to
move, and consequently the verb “to pass” cannot with propriety be
applied to Him in its primary signification.

[Contents]
 CHAPTER XXII
In Hebrew, the verb bo signifies “to come” as applied to a living
being, i.e., its arrival at a certain place, or approach to a certain
person, as “Thy brother came (ba) with subtilty” (Gen. xxvii. 35). It
next denotes (with regard to a living being) “to enter” a certain
place, e.g., “And when Joseph came (va-yabo) into the house” (Gen.
xliii. 26); “When ye come (ta-boü) into the land” (Exod. xii. 25). The
term was also employed metaphorically in the sense of “to come”
applied to a certain event, that is, to something incorporeal, as
“When thy sayings come to pass (yabo)” (Judg. xiii. 17); “Of that
which will come (yaboü) over thee” (Isa. xlvii. 13). Nay, it is even
applied to privatives, e.g., “Yet evil came (va-yabo)” (Job iii. 26);
“And darkness came (va-yabo)” Now, since the word has been
applied to incorporeal things, it has also been used in reference to
God—to the fulfilment of His word, or to the manifestation of His
Presence (the Shechinah). In this figurative sense it is said, “Lo, I
come (ba) unto thee in a thick cloud” (Exod. xix. 9); “For the Lord
the God of Israel cometh (ba) through it” (Ezek. xliv. 2). In these
and all similar passages, the coming of the Shechinah is meant, but
the words, “And the Lord my God shall come (u-ba)” (Zech. xiv. 5)
are identical with “His word will come,” that is to say, the promises
which He made through the Prophets will be fulfilled; therefore
Scripture adds “all the holy ones that are with thee,” that is to say,
“The word of the Lord my God will be performed, which has been
spoken by all the holy ones who are with thee, who address the
Israelites.”
[Contents]
 CHAPTER XXIII
Yaẓa (“he came out”) is the opposite of ba (“he came in”). The term
yaẓa is applied to the motion of a body from a place in which it had
previously rested, to another place (whether the body be a living
being or not), e.g., “And when they were gone out (yaẓeü) of the
city” (Gen. xliv. 4); “If fire break out (teẓe)” (Exod. xxii. 5). It was
then figuratively employed to [33]denote the appearance of
something incorporeal, as, “The word went out (yaẓa) of the king’s
mouth” (Esth. vii. 8); “When this deed of the queen shall come
abroad (yeẓe) unto all women” (Esth. i. 17), that is to say, “the
report will spread.” Again, “For out of Zion shall go forth (teẓe) the
Law” (Isa. ii. 3); further, “The sun had risen (yaẓa) upon the earth”
(Gen. xix. 23), i.e., its light became visible.

In this figurative sense we must take every expression of coming out

when applied to the Almighty, e.g., “Behold, the Lord cometh out
(yoẓe) of his place” (Isa. xxvi. 21), i.e., “The word of God, which
until now has been in secret, cometh out, and will become manifest,”
i.e., something will come into being which had not existed before;
for everything new emanating from God is ascribed to His word.
Comp. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the
host of them by the breath of his mouth” (Ps. xxxiii. 6). This is a
simile taken from the conduct of kings, who employ the word as the
means of carrying their will into effect. God, however, requires no
instrument wherewith to operate in order to perform anything; the
effect is produced solely by His will alone. He does not employ any
kind of speech, as will be explained further on (chap. lv.).

The verb “to come out” is thus employed to designate the

manifestation of a certain work of God, as we noticed in our
interpretation of the phrase, “Behold, the Lord cometh out of his
place.” In a similar manner the term shub, “to return,” has been
figuratively employed to denote the discontinuance of a certain act
according to the will of God, as in “I will go and return to my place”
(Hosea v. 15); that is to say, the Divine presence (Shechinah) which
had been in our midst departed from us, the consequence of which
has been the absence of Divine protection from amongst us. Thus
the Prophet foretelling misfortune says, “And I will hide my face from
them, and they shall be devoured” (Deut. xxxi. 17); for, when man is
deprived of Divine protection he is exposed to all dangers, and
becomes the butt of all fortuitous circumstances; his fortune and
misfortune then depend on chance. Alas! how terrible a threat!—This
is the idea contained in the words, “I will go and return to my place”
(Hos. v. 15).

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 CHAPTER XXIV
The term halak is likewise one of the words which denote
movements performed by living beings, as in “And Jacob went
(halak) on his way” (Gen. xxxii. 1), and in many other instances. The
verb “to go” was next employed in describing movements of objects
less solid than the bodies of living beings, comp. “And the waters
were going on (halok) decreasing” (Gen. viii. 5); “And the fire went
along (va-tihalak) upon the ground” (Exod. ix. 23). Then it was
employed to express the spreading and manifestation of something
incorporeal, comp. “The voice thereof shall go like a serpent” (Jer.
xlvi. 22); again, “The voice of the Lord God walking in the garden”
(Gen. iii. 8). It is “the voice” that is qualified by “walking.”

Whenever the word “to go” is used in reference to God, it must be

taken in this figurative sense, i.e., it applies to incorporeal things,
and signifies either the manifestation of something incorporeal, or
the withdrawal of the Divine protection, an act corresponding in
lifeless beings to the removal of [34]a thing, in living beings to the
departure of a living being, “walking.” The withdrawal of God’s
protection is called in the Bible “the hiding of God’s countenance,” as
in Deuteronomy xxxi. 18, “As for me, I will hide my countenance.”
On the same ground it has been designated “going away,” or moving
away from a thing, comp. “I will depart and return to my place”
(Hos. v. 15). But in the passage, “And the anger of the Lord was
kindled against them, and he went” (Num. xii. 9), the two meanings
of the verb are combined, viz., the withdrawal of the Divine
protection, expressed by “and he went,” and the revelation,
manifestation, and appearance of something namely, of the anger
which went forth and reached them, in consequence of which Miriam
became “leprous, white as snow.” The expression “to walk” was
further applied to conduct, which concerns only the inner life, and
which requires no bodily motion, as in the following passages, “And
thou shalt walk in his ways” (Deut. xxviii. 9); “Ye shall walk after the
Lord your God” (Deut. xiii. 5); “Come ye, and let us walk in the light
of the Lord.” (Isa. ii. 5).

[Contents]
 CHAPTER XXV
The Hebrew shakan, as is well known, signifies “to dwell,” as, “And
he was dwelling (shoken) in the plains of Mamre” (Gen. xiv. 13);
“And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt (bishekon)” (Gen. xxxv. 22).
This is the most common meaning of the word. But “dwelling in a
place” consists in the continued stay in a place, general or special;
when a living being dwells long in a place, we say that it stays in
that place, although it unquestionably moves about in it, comp. “And
he was staying in the plains of Mamre” (Gen. xiv. 13), and, “And it
came to pass, when Israel stayed” (Gen. xxxv. 22).

The term was next applied metaphorically to inanimate objects, i.e.,

to everything which has settled and remains fixed on one object,
although the object on which the thing remains is not a place, and
the thing itself is not a living being; for instance, “Let a cloud dwell
upon it [the day]” (Job iii. 5); there is no doubt that the cloud is not
a living being, and that the day is not a corporeal thing, but a
division of time.

In this sense the term is employed in reference to God, that is to

say, to denote the continuance of His Divine Presence (Shechinah) or
of His Providence in some place where the Divine Presence
manifested itself constantly, or in some object which was constantly
protected by Providence. Comp. “And the glory of the Lord abode”
(Exod. xxiv. 16); “And I will dwell among the children of Israel”
(Exod. xxix. 45); “And for the goodwill of him that dwelt in the bush”
(Deut. xxxiii. 16). Whenever the term is applied to the Almighty, it
must be taken consistently with the context in the sense either as
referring to the Presence of His Shechinah (i.e., of His light that was
created for the purpose) in a certain place, or of the continuance of
His Providence protecting a certain object.

[Contents]
 CHAPTER XXVI
You, no doubt, know the Talmudical saying, which includes in itself
all the various kinds of interpretation connected with our subject. It
runs thus: [35]“The Torah speaks according to the language of man,”
that is to say, expressions, which can easily be comprehended and
understood by all, are applied to the Creator. Hence the description
of God by attributes implying corporeality, in order to express His
existence; because the multitude of people do not easily conceive
existence unless in connection with a body, and that which is not a
body nor connected with a body has for them no existence.
Whatever we regard as a state of perfection, is likewise attributed to
God, as expressing that He is perfect in every respect, and that no
imperfection or deficiency whatever is found in Him. But there is not
attributed to God anything which the multitude consider a defect or
want; thus He is never represented as eating, drinking, sleeping,
being ill, using violence, and the like. Whatever, on the other hand,
is commonly regarded as a state of perfection is attributed to Him,
although it is only a state of perfection in relation to ourselves; for in
relation to God, what we consider to be a state of perfection, is in
truth the highest degree of imperfection. If, however, men were to
think that those human perfections were absent in God, they would
consider Him as imperfect.

You are aware that locomotion is one of the distinguishing

characteristics of living beings, and is indispensable for them in their
progress towards perfection. As they require food and drink to
supply animal waste, so they require locomotion, in order to
approach that which is good for them and in harmony with their
nature, and to escape from what is injurious and contrary to their
nature. It makes, in fact, no difference whether we ascribe to God
eating and drinking or locomotion; but according to human modes of
expression, that is to say, according to common notions, eating and
drinking would be an imperfection in God, while motion would not,
in spite of the fact that the necessity of locomotion is the result of
some want. Furthermore, it has been clearly proved, that everything
which moves is corporeal and divisible; it will be shown below that
God is incorporeal and that He can have no locomotion; nor can rest
be ascribed to Him; for rest can only be applied to that which also
moves. All expressions, however, which imply the various modes of
movement in living beings, are employed with regard to God in the
manner we have described and in the same way as life is ascribed to
Him; although motion is an accident pertaining to living beings, and
there is no doubt that, without corporeality, expressions like the
following could not be imagined: “to descend, to ascend, to walk, to
place, to stand, to surround, to sit, to dwell, to depart, to enter, to
pass, etc.”

It would have been superfluous thus to dilate on this subject, were it

not for the mass of the people, who are accustomed to such ideas.
It has been necessary to expatiate on the subject, as we have
attempted, for the benefit of those who are anxious to acquire
perfection, to remove from them such notions as have grown up
with them from the days of youth.

[Contents]
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