Better Practice Checklist - 6. Use of Metadata for Web Resources

June 2005 (organisational details updated January 2008)

Introduction

Australian Government departments and agencies use a range of new technologies for information provision, service delivery and administration.

A key role of the Department of Finance and Deregulation, Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) Group, is to identify and promote 'Better Practice'. This checklist has been provided to assist agencies to create quality AGLS Metadata in the best possible way.

This checklist outlines a number of issues for consideration when managing metadata in an agency. The items in the checklist have been provided to help agencies to consider the user's perspective and factors that may enhance the effectiveness of their online resources.

This checklist is intended to be a guide to authors and creators of metadata, managers responsible for metadata, and technical staff. Managers may find the checklist useful in dealing with contractors engaged to create metadata online, or where this function is otherwise outsourced. This checklist focuses on non-technical issues.

It is recommended that agencies use this checklist in conjunction with the Australian Government Implementation Manual: AGLS Metadata [], which is the Australian Government agencies' guide to AS 5044, AGLS Metadata Element Set.

It should be noted that the checklist is not intended to be comprehensive. Rather, it highlights key issues for agencies. The checklist is iterative and draws on the expertise and experience of practitioners. The subject matter and issues are reviewed and updated to reflect developments.

Download PDF of Checklist 6 - Use of Metadata for Web Resources [ - 292 KB]

Acknowledgments

Originally published by the National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE) in 2001 (Version 1), and updated in 2002, (Version 2), this checklist was revised in 2004 and updated in 2005 with assistance from Australian Government agencies. In particular, we would like to thank the National Archives of Australia.

What is metadata and why use it?

Metadata is structured information that is created specifically to describe another resource. It provides basic information such as the author, the date of creation and the subject matter of the item described.

Metadata can be compared to a library catalogue record that facilitates discovery of a particular work by providing information such as title, author, publisher, subject, description of the work, location, etc. Likewise, metadata facilitates the discovery and use of an agency's resources online by providing information that aids and increases the ease with which information can be located by search engines that index metadata.

With increasing volumes of government information located on the Internet, the Australian Government's goal must be to ensure that users retrieve all relevant resources in the most effective and efficient manner.

One way of making these resources easily discoverable is through the use of metadata. Quality metadata provides reliable, detailed descriptions of the key concepts of a document or the key purpose of a service. By all agencies using the same metadata standard, the Australian Government Locator Service (AGLS), similar items in different agencies will be described in a similar fashion. This makes it more likely that search results will be sufficiently refined and at the same time will exclude material that is not required. In December 2002, the AGLS specification was modified to be applicable to the public and private sectors and released as an Australian Standard: AS 5044, AGLS Metadata Element Set.

While agencies need to invest resources in creating quality metadata, the returns on this investment are considerable, in terms of access to resources for users and greater manageability of these resources in the agency. Agencies can also maximise this investment by using metadata to describe other kinds of data, such as statistical collections, internal research reports or other documents on the agency's intranet.

Summary of Checkpoints

check box Consider the online and offline resources that need to be described with AGLS Metadata

check box Decide whether a metadata creation tool is necessary and, if so, select a tool that best meets the agency's needs

check box Decide who will create the metadata and whether creation will be centralised or decentralised within the agency

check box Ensure that everyone creating metadata understands the definition and application of each element

check box Consider attending an AGLS training course through the National Archives of Australia or other training providers

check box Decide how the metadata is to be stored in the agency so that it can be efficiently managed and accessible to internal and external search engines

check box Ensure that the metadata has been created in accordance with the AGLS standard

check box Decide which staff member or position in the agency will have overall responsibility for managing and maintaining AGLS metadata. This should include responsibility for overall quality assurance of the metadata, including its currency and accuracy.

check box Consider examples of metadata implementation

Checkpoints

check box Consider the online and offline resources that need to be described with AGLS Metadata

Agencies should decide which of their information and services require AGLS Metadata, as not all resources will require metadata. It is quite appropriate to create 'collection level' metadata records to describe a group of resources that deal with a particular topic or are of a specific type - for example, a web page that is the top level page for a government program or policy or web page that is the top level of a specific sub-directory of the agency website.

The Commonwealth Implementation Manual: AGLS Metadata provides a list of resources for which AGLS Metadata should be created. This list comprises:

Home pages, where a home page is defined as the major entry point to an organisation, or to a distinct business unit where there is likely to be a public perception that it stands alone as an organisational entity.
Topics/services in high demand by the target community the organisation serves. This category can be based on usage statistics, search logs or site feedback, but it may also include topical or publicised resources with anticipated public interest.
Information required by agency clientele to understand their entitlements to government assistance and the government requirements that apply to these entitlements.
Pages that provide an actual online service to the public, such as payment forms and application forms.
Pages required to meet a prescribed community/legal/service obligation of the organisation.
Entry points to specific online services and indexes, such as an entry point to a legal database.
Formal agency publications, such as annual reports, corporate strategic plans, and public statements of policy or accountability.
Media releases.
Major entry points or indexes and menus for a range of closely related topics, programs or policies.
Information about agency powers that affect the public, and manuals and other documents used in decision making that affects the public.
Substantial descriptive or marketing information about agencies and their services, activities and collections.

Agencies should ensure that all the above categories of resources have metadata. In addition, agencies should assess any other key information resources that they deliver to their customers (whether this is the public or other government agencies), with a view to applying metadata to these resources as well. As metadata allows users to search accurately and quickly, any documents that are in demand by clients should be metadata tagged.

Agencies may also consider creating metadata for offline resources. The AGLS Metadata Standard provides the 'Availability' element to allow offline resources to be described. A metadata record can be created for an offline resource, which is then available for searching. In this way, all the services and information provided by an agency can be identified and discovered in the online environment.

An analysis of customers' demands and expectations is important in determining the level of detail applied to AGLS Metadata.

check box Decide whether a metadata creation tool is necessary and, if so, select a tool that best meets the agency's needs

While metadata can be created without the use of a specific metadata tool, agencies may wish to use a tool, especially if numerous metadata records need to be created.

Content management systems may also offer metadata creation and management functions.

Of particular use may be the creation of a metadata template to help ensure that metadata is created in a consistent way across the agency. When using a template, ensure that the metadata elements for individual pages are not autofilled with agency level information. Each element in the metadata should contain only information specific to the page or collection being described. Failure to ensure this can lead to the same information being repeated on multiple pages on an agency website. A significant amount of repeated metadata can instead inhibit discovery by search engines.

check box Decide who will create the metadata and whether creation will be centralised or decentralised within the agency

Agencies need to decide on who will have the overall responsibility for metadata creation, management and quality assurance. In deciding, agencies may like to consider adopting either a centralised or a decentralised model, or a mixture of both.

Centralised. This is where an agency may make specific staff responsible for creating and storing metadata on behalf of the organisation. Another staff member, preferably with information management skills and qualifications, may be made responsible for quality control and value adding.
Decentralised. This is where the authors of documents are responsible for creating metadata as part of the writing process.

Agencies may consider implementing a system whereby metadata authoring is decentralised (the authors create the metadata) and metadata management (quality control, etc.) is centralised. Feedback from agencies indicates that this combination generally works well.

check box Ensure that everyone creating metadata understands the definition and application of each element

Based on the Dublin Core, the AGLS Metadata element set describes the characteristics of the resource. The metadata set consists of 19 elements that, for Australian Government agencies, have been grouped into three obligation or use categories. The categories and elements are:

Mandatory: Creator, Date, Description, Title, Identifier or Availability, and Type.
Conditional: Function, Subject, Publisher, Audience, Coverage and Language.
Optional: Contributor, Format, Mandate, Relation, Rights and Source.

However, agencies are encouraged to use as many additional metadata elements as necessary in order to enhance the agency's resource description and maximise discovery.

The elements that are particularly important to customer-focused portals in their delivery of browse lists and searches targeted to their customer groups are Title, Subject, Description, Coverage, Function, Audience, Type and Availability.

Create metadata with search engine optimisation strategies in mind. Ensure web pages are accurately titled and that your descriptions reflect the content of the individual pages. Some search engines give additional weighting to title terms and use the description element in the result display. In addition to using terms from a subject thesaurus, the subject element can be used for alternate search terms used by your client for specific agency resources.

The object of metadata is to aid the discovery of specific resource by describing its unique features, not to add more 'noise' to the process by making it look the same as every other page on your site. No metadata is better than bad metadata; poor quality will only inhibit the discoverability of resources.

check box Decide how the metadata is to be stored in the agency so that it can be efficiently managed and accessible to internal and external search engines

Depending on the agency's business needs and the size of the website, there are several options for storing AGLS Metadata. For instance, it can be embedded in metatags within individual HTML web pages, stored in a database or in a Web Content Management System.

Decisions about where and how to store AGLS metadata should be informed by an analysis of internal management and work processes, so as to facilitate the efficient management and maintenance of the metadata. The Australian Government entry point, www.australia.gov.au [], currently only harvests metadata embedded in web pages. Where ever it is stored the metadata must be accessible to both internal and external search engines. Whatever method is adopted, agencies are encouraged to consider the importance of storing metadata properly so as to prevent any additional costs at a later date arising from improper storage.

check box Ensure that the metadata has been created in accordance with the AGLS standard

The criteria an agency can use to determine whether its website complies with the AGLS Metadata standard are:

All mandatory AGLS elements and other required elements as appropriate exist in each metadata record.
Values are consistent with the schemes used. (For example, dates conform to ISO 8601 Standard for Date Encoding, terms used in the Function element come from the Australian Governments' Interactive Function Thesaurus (AGIFT)
Elements have been used properly. (That is, the values for each element are appropriate.)
Functional terms are appropriate for the resource. (Agencies often use all applicable terms for the agency in every resource description. Functional terms should be specific to the resource being described.)
Subject, Title and Description elements contain good-quality metadata. (For example, titles are not repeated across the website; subject terms are minimal and the Subject element is not full of inappropriate terms; descriptions are appropriate for the particular resource.)
Optional elements are used appropriately.

Regardless of whether your agency uses centralised or distributed processes for metadata authoring, it is strongly recommended that one staff member in the agency should have overall responsibility for managing and maintaining all of the agency's AGLS metadata. While it is not difficult to create good quality AGLS metadata, it is very easy to create bad metadata. Quality assurance of AGLS metadata is absolutely critical to ensuring return on the agency's investment in a metadata strategy. In particular, it is important to ensure that the metadata is kept up to date and that it is not simply created and forgotten about while the agency's resources continue to develop and evolve around it. The metadata has to accurately reflect and be in step with the current range and nature of the agency's web-based information resources and services as poor quality metadata will only inhibit the discoverability of resources.

check box Consider examples of metadata implementation

Examples of better practice in the implementation of AGLS Metadata are available on the AGIMO website at http://www.agimo.gov.au/archive/better_practice/examples.html [].

Other Better Practice Checklists

Download PDF of Checklist 6 - Use of Metadata for Web Resources [ - 292 KB]

Contact for information on this page: AGIMO Better Practice Team

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