Information is regarded as a valuable resource which should be managed like other resources, and should contribute directly to accomplishing organizational goals and objectives. An element of infrastructure that enables the transaction of certain selected significant and relevant data, prepared so as to provide content and information services that can be used directly by the user. It is necessary to establish some minimum socio-technical requirements for an element to qualify as a resource. This timely book employs the unifying mechanism of the semantic web and the resource description framework to integrate the various traditions and practices of information and knowledge organization. An overview of the field of information organization that examines resource description as both a product and process of the contemporary digital environment. This book employs the unifying mechanism of the semantic web and the resource description framework to integrate the various traditions and practices of information and knowledge organization. Uniquely, it covers both the domainspecific traditions and practices and the practices of the ‘metadata movement’ through a single lens – that of resource description in the broadest, semantic web sense. Information Resource Description covers information resource attributes; metadata for information retrieval; metadata sources and quality; knowledge organization systems; the semantic web; books and e-books, websites and audiovisual resources, etc. This book is a vital book for information professionals learning to apply the most current metadata tools and skills in practice. It is also indispensable reading for LIS students taking information organization courses.