Metadata registry

A metadata registry is a central location in an organization where metadata definitions are stored and maintained in a controlled method.

A metadata repository is the database where metadata is stored. The registry also adds relationships with related metadata types.

Metadata registries are used whenever data must be used consistently within an organization or group of organizations. Examples of these situations include:

Central to the charter of any metadata management programme is the process of creating trusting relationships with stakeholders and that definitions and structures have been reviewed and approved by appropriate parties.

A metadata registry typically has the following characteristics:

Because metadata registries are used to store both semantics (the meaning of a data element) and systems-specific constraints (for example the maximum length of a string) it is important to identify what systems impose these constraints and to document them. For example the maximum length of a string should not change the meaning of a data element.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has published standards for a metadata registry called ISO/IEC 11179 and also ISO15000-3 and ISO15000-4 ebXML registry and repository (regrep) EbXML RegRep

There are two ISO standards which are commonly referred to as metadata registry standards: ISO 11179 and ISO 15000-3. There are some who believe that ISO 11179 and ISO 15000-3 are interchangeable or at least in some way similar. e.g.

"Of interest is that the ISO 11179 model was one of the inputs to the ebXML RIM (registry information model) and so has much functional equivalence to the "registry" region of the ISO 11179 conceptual model." [1]

This is however incorrect. Although the specification ebRIM v2.0 (5 december 2001) says at the beginning in its Design Objectives: "Leverage as much as possible the work done in the OASIS [OAS] and the ISO 11179 [ISO] Registry models" [2] by the time of ebRIM v3.0 (2 May 2005) all reference to ISO/IOEC 11179 is reduced to a mention under informative references on page 76 of 78. [3] It was recognised by some team members that the ebXML RIM data model had no place to store "fine grained artifacts" [4] ie. the data elements which are at the heart of ISO/IEC 11179, but not until 2009 can an explicit and definitive statement from the team be found. [5]

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