how it works and where to find them in your e-book
What is Metadata?
Metadata is data that describes other data – the prefix “Meta” comes from the Greek and means “beyond” – being used to facilitate the search, organization, management of information, as well as the indexing of your project on other platforms . In addition to these data being important for the indexing and dissemination of your e-Book on the internet, they are also essential for your book's accessibility in screen readers, whether on the web or local software.
Some of the Metadata present in e-Books are: title, author's name, publication date, DOI, ISBN, synopsis, among other data. It is important that you, the author, know how to find this information, in order to verify that your book has it and guarantee the wide dissemination of your work. This data can help readers find your book when they're searching for a specific topic.
The importance of metadata for web semantics is basically linked to the ease of structuring and organizing data, which can facilitate retrieval and use of the same. The catalog file has some information that is integrated into the metadata, being an electronic record that contains important descriptions and that allow you to know what the text is about without the need to read the content.
Does my book have metadata?
You can find the metadata of an eBook in its own file or on online bookselling sites like Amazon, for example. To find an eBook's metadata in your file, you'll need to open it using an eBook reader program. Most programs will show metadata either in the main book window or in a special tab called "Metadata".
Knowing this, how can you find the metadata of your book published by Editora Pimenta Cultural?
As mentioned earlier, you will need a program to read the eBook. In the example below, Adobe Acrobat Reader software was used. It's free and you can download it here. Using this software you will need to follow the following path: File->Properties->Description.
Below are some images from the book American Expression to exemplify how to find the metadata in your book.
Step 1: Open your eBook in Adobe Acrobat Reader
Step 2: In the upper left corner, click on File, then point the mouse and click on the option Properties...
Step 3: In the document properties we can view some of the metadata that makes up our eBook.
The various indexing platforms benefit mainly from two data structure tools: the OAI-PMH format and the JSON format, from which we can automatically index in other repositories through the Harvesting system.< /p>
Below an example of the structure provided by OAI-PMH:
The metadata is also used by the Crossref platform in the DOI (Digital Object Identifier) record and can be found through a query as follows:
Step 1: Go to https://www.crossref.org/ and select Search Metadata
Step 2: paste your book's DOI into the search box and click the magnifying glass or hit enter
Step 3: click on Actions -> Cite
The RIS option is the easiest to understand:
In short, metadata is very important and its correct use will expand the dissemination of your academic projects. Remembering that at Pimenta Cultural this work is included in all our eBooks available for free on our platform.
Now that you know the importance of metadata and how it directly impacts your work, come publish with us. Here we work constantly to improve the indexes and to expand the reach of the works published here.