A Meta-Data Layer for Astronomical Archives

In many large observatories, meta-data is spread across a variety of sources (databases, text files, personal knowledge), has varying degrees of quality (in terms of completeness, correctness and precision), and operational constraints abound (one cannot risk locking the database with large queries, incorrect metadata cannot always be corrected). Bence we propose the concept of a "rnetadata" layer service which will shield the query services from the complexity of data sources. Based on a simple but carefully defined standard, this service aims to be generic enough to be adopted across the Virtual Observatory (VO) community, allowing interoperability of the archives at a level not yet possible in the VO.