"We believe that the community of information professionals who have organized and preserved the world's written treasures for thousands of years will not fail to continue to organize and preserve the world's digital treasures in the future, demonstrating their usual sensitivity and creativity, remembering the lessons history has taught them, and keeping in mind the interests of all their user communities, present and future, as they have always done." With these bold words, three mavens of the cataloging world tackle the topic of metadata. Undaunted by its dominance in the lexicon and collective consciousness of the library profession, they deftly anatomize the concept of "data about data" into discrete aspects (Metadata), then relate those aspects to a miscellany of circumstances in which librarians may increasingly find themselves (Its Impact on Libraries.) Part One examines the characteristics of multiple metadata schema, the creation of metadata for both monographic and continuous electronic resources, and its integration into local catalogs and databases. Part Two explores metadata's effect on current developments in online reference, choice of metadata schema, archiving and digital preservation, and professional education, as well as future innovations yet unborn. A must-read for sophisticated information specialists, as well as those who aspire to similar heights of intellectual worldliness. - Publisher.