Role of Metadata in Census Data Dissemination

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Role of Metadata in Census Data Dissemination
2011

• United Nation Regional Seminar on
• Census Data Dissemination and Spatial Analysis

Manish BharadwajIndian Administrative
ServiceDirector of Census Operation,
Gujarat Office of the Registrar General India
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What is Metadata ?

• Metadata loosely means data about data.
• A metadata record consists of a set of
  attributes, or elements, necessary to describe
  the resource in question
• Metadata is a key element of census dissemination
  to ensure that the underlying concepts are well
  understood and that the results are well
  interpreted.

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Types of Metadata

• Descriptive
• Purpose Resource discovery and identification
• Ex. Title, abstract, author, URL, keywords, etc.
• Administrative Rights Management
• Purpose Help manage a resource
• Ex. Who created and when, who can access,
  content format, rights information, etc.
• Structural metadata
• Purpose Document structure
• Ex. Chapter, section, paragraph

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Principles and Recommendations for Population and
Housing Censuses UN 2008

• All tabulations should include the following
  metadata
• Full references to where the information can be
  obtained
• Census questions
• reasons why they are asked
• Conceptual definitions (census dictionary)
• geographic hierarchies used
• changes since the previous census with regard to
  content
• operational methods or geographic boundaries and
  
• quality indicators such as coverage rates and
  item non-response.

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Status Indian Census

• Whereas basic metadata is provided with every
  table released, a complete regime is still not in
  place.
• Few of the products based on 2001 Census data
  were released with complete metadata but the same
  practice was not followed for other products.
• The Census Organisation proposes to take steps to
  compile metadata collection for future data
  releases as per the standards prescribed by the
  UNSD.

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Thank you