Tina Marie Maes (Wisconsin)

Metadata is the Connexion Between People and Stuff

Embroidery
Designed and stitched by Tina Marie Maes

“Metadata, a.k.a. the words in specific fields and in specific order, is what connects people to the materials that they want. For example, the 100 field is used for personal name of creator, 245 for title, 264 for publication information, and 300 for physical description. Metadata not just about the item itself, but also about its creation, who made it, what that thing is about, and lastly where it lives in the library or in the world. Metadata has to include information on and about many kinds of materials beyond books: everything from video games, music, movies, TV shows, audiobooks, cake pans, bikes, etc. It also has to include information on formats: VHS vs. DVD, large print book vs. something you can read on your phone. This design is also a nod to OCLC’s Connexion, the program that I use every day to make that metadata move beyond the jargon that we (as metadata creators) speak every day and make it accessible and understandable to human eyes.”

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Tina Marie Maes is the lead cataloging librarian at the Madison Public Library in Madison, Wisconsin.

Tina Marie’s embroidery has the phrase “Metadata is the Connexion between” with images of groups of people stitched in purple “&” images of the things a person might take out of a library. Various MARC field tags have been embroidered into the word Metadata, including 100, 245, 264, 300 and others. Connexion is a reference to the software many metadata professionals use to find, share, use and create metadata for records.