http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/archive/
2003/hyatt.pdf
This recent paper by Shirley Hyatt provides a good high level summary of the field of metadata from the library perspective, and contains a great quote by Sir Thomas Hyde from 1674 that helps to give the whole issue some historical perspective: “In the colossal labor, which exhausts both body and soul, of making into an alphabetical catalogue, a multitude of books gathered from every corner of the earth there are many intricate and difficult problems that torture the mind. – SWL