What is metadata and why is it important to LEPnet.org?

Metadata is, literally, "data about data." Metadata can be better understood as information that describes other information. For example, this Web page of FAQs for LEPnet.org has an author, a title, a date of creation, and a unique Internet address; this information constitutes the metadata about this page. Metadata enables sophisticated, powerful, and accurate searches across LEPnet.org project materials. As much as possible, contributors are encouraged to include as much metadata as possible in their contributions, in order to facilitate the searching, sharing, and re-working of content.