1. The Global Marketplace for Forest Information

2. Why should we create metadata? Users Information providers

3. What is Metadata? A metadata record consists of a set of attributes, or elements, necessary to describe the resource in question. For example, a metadata system common in libraries -- the library catalog -- contains a set of metadata records with elements that describe a book or other library item: author, title, date of creation or publication, subject coverage, and the call number specifying location of the item on the shelf. The linkage between a metadata record and the resource it describes may take one of two forms: 1.elements may be contained in a record separate from the item, as in the case of the library's catalog record; or 2.the metadata may be embedded in the resource itself. "Metadata is fundamental to persons, organizations, machines, and an array of enterprises that are increasingly turning to the Web and electronic communication for disseminating and accessing information."

4. Metadata standards Metadata Standards Bibliographic - MARC, IFLA, Dublin Core Archival– ISAD Museum – CIDOC CRM Educational - IMS, GEM, EDNA Government - GILS, AGLS Geospatial – FGDC News – NewsML Image - VRA Core Audio - ID3 Audiovisual - MPEG- 7, SMPTE, EBU, FIAF Non-Standard Metadata Many metadata structures: –CABI, BOKU, FAO,…. Multiple types of metadata: –XML files, databases, Z39.50, Text files, website (html), etc Heterogeneous platforms: –Access, mysql, oracle, etc GFIS needs an integration tool to handle multiple non-standard metadata sources

5. What is the Dublin Core? The Dublin Core metadata standard is a simple yet effective element set for describing a wide range of networked resources. The Dublin Core standard includes two levels: Simple and Qualified. Simple Dublin Core comprises fifteen elements; Qualified Dublin Core includes an additional element, Audience, as well as a group of element refinements (also called qualifiers) that refine the semantics of the elements in ways that may be useful in resource discovery. The semantics of Dublin Core have been established by an international, cross-disciplinary group of professionals from librarianship, computer science, text encoding, the museum community, and other related fields of scholarship and practice. Another way to look at Dublin Core is as a "small language for making a particular class of statements about resources". In this language, there are two classes of terms--elements (nouns) and qualifiers (adjectives) -- which can be arranged into a simple pattern of statements.

6. Data/Information Object (DO) Data/Information Objects are the items that the user wants to find through metadata searching. These items have different content, spatial and temporal scales, format and other attributes specific to each object and database.

7. GFIS Metadata The GFIS metadata definition is based on the Dublin Core metadata standard.

8. GFIS Metadata Elements (I) Mandatory DC fields:DC DescriptionGFIS Information Provider TitleThe name given to the resource by the CREATOR or PUBLISHER CreatorThe person(s) or organisations primarily responsible for the intellectual content of the resource SubjectHere: Subject Keywords: free text (user-defined keywords) TypeCategory of the resource: e.g. homepage, novel, technical report etc. FormatData representation of the resource such as text/html, ASCII, or JPEG image etc. IdentifierString or number to uniquely identify the resource (e.g. ISBN, ISSN, URL in case of online resources) LanguageLanguage of intellectual content of the resource

9. GFIS Metadata Elements (II) Desirable DC fields:DC DescriptionGFIS Information Provider ContributorPersons or organisations in addition to those specified in the CREATOR element. PublisherThe entity responsible for the information content RelationThe relation of this resource to other resources (e.g. images in a document) DescriptionA textual description of the resource SourceA string used to identify the work from which this resource was derived. DateThe date the resource was made available in its present form. CoverageSpatial or temporal characteristics of the resource (e.g. country, region etc.) RightsLink to a copy right notice

10. Silviculture Physiology and Genetics Forest Operations and Techniques Inventory, Growth and Yield Forest Products Social, Economic, Information and Policy Sciences Forest Health Forest Environment What is in GFIS? Over 100,000 catalogue records are currently available through GFIS from 50 organisations located in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America. This pool of reference data is the starting point for a continuously expanding service eventually providing links to all information resources worldwide. www.gfis.net 12/2000 Fire Atlas Africa Source: esa ESRIN Source: Schnabel, Department of Forest Growth, BFW Source: Krehan, Department of Forest Protection, BFW Maps Journals Grey Literature GIS Policies Experts Data Research Reports Images Access to…About…

11. Metadata management One of the reasons metadata is receiving such attention is its role in facilitating information seeking. The poor quality metadata can make search worse, and that metadata needs to be kept up to date using dynamic classification tools.

12. Challenges I The challenges of metadata management: - the costs and benefits of creating metadata - integration and interoperability - methods of metadata creation - quality issues and information architecture The lack of tools for managing and applying metadata adds an additional burden to organizations wishing to centralize and standardize metadata use. => GFIS has tried to minimize the burden

13. Challenges II Metadata creation is a fundamental challenge. Metadata development and application is one of the most expensive ways to get users to content. In many organizations the most challenging issues are cultural and political. Information providers must be prepared to make a clear business case for their metadata initiatives and promote the visibility of their efforts and impact.

14. Do NOT try to do everything AT ONCE. Links: http://dublincore.org/ http://www.searchtools.com/

15. Thank you for your attention!