1 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle Metadata Explained © Netskills, Quality Internet Training University of Newcastle Netskills is a trademark of Netskills, University of Newcastle.

2 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle Overview This talk will cover metadata issues The concepts of metadata Use of metadata in practice The difficulties in using metadata

3 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle Metadata Information about information Different objects, different forms eg Library catalogue record Property:Value: Author Ian Beardwell Publisher Pitman Date published 1994 Subject classification Human Resource Management ISBNISBN

4 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle Why is Metadata Important? Describe and locate information Judge relevance of information Promote good information management Plus.... Can help to promote your site Some search tools and information gateways use metadata when locating and describing resources

5 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle The HTML 'META' Tag Authors define properties and values Most common meta tags used by search engines:

6 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle HTML 'META' Tag References W3C HTML 4.0 Recommendation global.html#h Web Design Group html40/head/meta.html

7 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle Interpreting Attributes Similar attributes may be interpreted differently eg. DATE -what does it mean? The date the resource was put on the web? The date the original paper copy was written? Consistency of values is important: It ensures searching for information is effective It allows standard searches to be made

8 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle Setting Parameters Inconsistencies can be reduced: Clear labelling of attributes Lastname, initials, title Formats and rules Formats - Author = Beardwell, I, Dr Date = 01-Jan-97 Cataloguing rules - guidance on interpreting labels

9 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle Dublin Core Workshop held in Dublin, Ohio 'Document-Like Objects' HTML, Postscript, images 15 core elements: Title, Creator, Subject, Description, Publisher, Contributors, Date, Type, Format, Identifier, Source, Language, Relation, Coverage and Rights Flexibility provided by qualifiers Date.Created, Date.Modified Link tag points to definitions of DC element set

10 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle Dublin Core Example <meta name="DC.Subject" content="Netskills, internet, training, workshops, courses, training materials, free online courses"> <meta name="DC.Description" content="Netskills is a quality internet training service delivering internet training workshops, online self paced tutorials and producing training materials for other trainers to buy and use."> <meta name="DC.Publisher" content="Netskills, University of Newcastle, UK">

11 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle Metadata Development Which format to use? Dublin Core? New standards? masses/intro.html Format can be easily altered by generators DC DOT – Separate the metadata from the information Use server-side includes (SSIs) Resource Description Framework (RDF)

12 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle Uses of RDF Resource discovery - search engines Cataloguing - describe content and content relationships Describing intellectual property rights Intelligent software agents - information sharing Content rating Privacy preferences/policies Collections of pages as a single "document" "RDF with digital signatures will be key to building the 'Web of Trust' for electronic commerce, collaboration, and other applications. "

13 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle Disadvantages of Metadata In the short-term, metadata imposes a load on the server Metadata stored in separate files? Difficult to convince information providers of its importance Need for standardised usage and procedures Not trusted by search engines Keyword 'spamming' Inaccurate metadata

14 © Netskills Quality Internet Training, University of Newcastle Future Proofing Metadata can be very useful Metadata may need to be added retrospectively to thousands of documents Start collecting data now! Automate as much as possible Ensure information providers use metadata