Metadata in international database systems and the United Nations Common
Database (UNCDB )

Robert Mayo
Statistician
United Nations Statistics Division

Current developments in Internet technologies and their global reach
Provide national and international government statisticians with many new
Opportunities to provide statistical data and metadata to users. This
paper provides an overview of current practices of providing metadata on
sources and methods in international data systems and focuses on systems
designed to provide data via Internet. The paper discusses the essential
elements of a metadata system in an international statistical system. The
metadata system of the United Nations Economic and Social Information
System Common Database will be discussed In detail.