A metadata repository is a software tool that stores descriptive information about the data model used to store and share metadata. Metadata repositories combine diagrams and text, enabling metadata integration and change. The metadata repository’s power lies with the easily accessible way people can view and navigate its contents.

Other Definitions of Metadata Repositories Include:

• Metadata Management tool allowing an organization to create “a high-level conception or map of its data,” consequently providing better data usage across systems. (Michelle Knight)
• A “high-performance, high-quality, continuously evolving metadata system that catalogs all data” in addition to managing metadata. (NASA, Common Metadata Repository [CMR])
• Software that “provides users of each suite tool with a common understanding of the structure of data … changes that are made in one suite tool are automatically and instantly visible.” (IBM)
• Tool “that indexes and consolidates metadata from different documents and information systems. From there the repository can integrate with an electronic health record system.” (AHIMA)
• “A physical location in which a collection of related metadata objects is stored.” (Dartmouth)