Abstract
Study text comprises three parts. The first part is devoted to metadata area terminology (the term "metadata" itself, its origin, definitions, typology, role of metadata in information resources life cycle).
The second part introduces an outline of selected main metadata schemas (Dublin Core, TEI Headers, MARCXML, MODS and MADS). The third part describes two container structures for metadata communication and long term preservation (RDF a METS).
The text contains examples of metadata records exported from some digital archives and other electronic databases. The text is ended by bibliography of recommended literature.