From NSDLWiki

metadataProvidedBy

The metadataProvidedBy relationship indicates that a unit of Metadata originates from some provider.

Types (Subject) that may contain this relationship 

Metadata

Types (Object) that this relationship points to 

MetadataProvider

Predicate Namespace 

http://ns.nsdl.org/api/relationships#

Cardinality 

Exactly One metadataprovidedBy relationship is in a given Metadata object.

Usage and Semantics

Every Metadata object must be provided by exactly only one MetadataProvider. This relationship is used for determining the provenance of every Metadata statement in the repository. It resembles memberOf in the sense that this relationship is used for defining the members of grouping, albeit one with specialized semantics and restrictions.