TAGS - Thesaurus of Australian Government Subjects - Metadata Checkpoints
Introduction
The best method for using TAGS in an agency depends on an agency's particular business process or workflow for metadata authoring. Various options exist for integrating the thesaurus with metadata authoring tools however it is recommended that an agency consider making available only those terms relevant to the work of that particular agency.
These guidelines provide guidance on using TAGS for metadata authoring. For tips on using TAGS in a website or portal environment to assist navigation please refer to Checkpoints on using TAGS in your Portal
If you wish to discuss any aspect of the implementation of TAGS please contact us and we will work with you to decide the best approach for your agency.
How can an agency access TAGS?
TAGS is available in two formats, a plain text file in CSV and a browse and print version in PDF. It is expected that one of these options will suit agency requirements:
What is the Scheme name?
The official scheme name for the thesaurus is TAGS. HTML example:
<META NAME="DC.Subject" SCHEME="TAGS" CONTENT="Drug abuse; Prevention">
When should I start using TAGS?
TAGS is available for immediate use. It will take agencies some time to put the appropriate systems in place to make TAGS is available to metadata creators. TAGS should be used for those existing metadata records as they are revised as part of an agency's regular maintenance review.
How can agencies integrate TAGS with Metadata authoring tools?
If an agency has a content management system or a metadata template the thesaurus can be integrated with the AGLS tool or template, for example as a pick list behind the Subject element.
Can agencies choose the level of granularity?
Agencies may choose which level of the hierarchy to implement to, for example an agency may implement to the second level of the hierarchy. This will give more general subject analysis, or less granularity of description.
Can agencies choose relevant Subject categories?
TAGS has up to four levels of hierarchy with most concepts represented by a single word or phrase. This allows flexibility in combining terms, or post coordinate indexing.
Concepts that are broadly related to each other have been grouped as Subject categories, which collect together related terms. The Subject categories are:
| AG | Agriculture | ET | Education and Training |
| BI | Business and Industry | GP | Government and Politics |
| CH | Culture and Heritage | HS | Health and Safety |
| CS | Community and Society | IC | Information and Communications |
| DE | Defence | LJ | Law and justice |
| EF | Economics and Finance | ST | Science and Technology |
| EM | Employment | TR | Transport |
| EN | Environment and Nature |
There are two additional categories, PE Persons and PR Processes that provide useful groupings for general terms.
Most agencies will find only certain Subject categories, plus the terms from the Processes/Persons categories, are relevant to their resources. An agency metadata quality manager or information manager will be able to assist with selecting the terms that are relevant to the agency. As a result the whole of TAGS will not need to be included in an agency's metadata tool and metadata authors will have a targeted, shorter list of terms to choose from.
Another alternative is for an agency to choose to include the full hierarchy into its core business areas; but
- Include only the top levels in areas outside its' core business; or
- Lookup to the published version for those areas outside its' core business.
What is the relationship of TAGS to an agency thesaurus?
If an agency has a specific thesaurus it will probably be much more specific than TAGS in selected areas, however it is possible for agencies to:
- Apply as many terms as are considered relevant from an agency's subject thesaurus by repeating the Subject element and applying the relevant scheme. An example of this in HTML is:
- <META NAME="DC.Subject" SCHEME="TAGS" CONTENT="Diabetes; Prevention; Visual impairments">
- <META NAME="DC.Subject" SCHEME="Health Thesaurus" CONTENT="complications; diabetes mellitus; prevention and control; retinal diseases; therapy; vision impairments">
- Implement an automatic mapping scheme (one solution only) so that more specific terms from an agency thesaurus can be mapped to the appropriate general term in TAGS. This will then alleviate the tediousness for metadata authors having to do 'Subject' metatagging twice, using different schemes, which increases the possibility of poor quality results.
For example, the agency thesaurus may include the term "Electrical accidents", which is not a heading in TAGS. The nearest heading in TAGS is "Occupational accidents". If the agency builds and implements an automatic mapping table, then every time an author using the inbuilt Agency thesaurus enters "Electrical accidents" as Subject metadata, the system will look up the table and add "Occupational accidents" automatically as the corresponding TAGS term:
- <META NAME="DC.Subject" SCHEME="TAGS" CONTENT="Occupational accidents">
- <META NAME="DC.Subject" SCHEME="AOHST" CONTENT=" Electrical accidents">
Do agencies need to provide guidance to metadata creators?
Agencies will need to provide guidance on the correct use of the thesaurus to their metadata creators. The following information is a guide to the type of usage information that should be conveyed to metadata creators:
- Guidance on how metadata creators should use TAGS in an agency's environment;
- Instruction on how the thesaurus structure works, for example:
- how to navigate the hierarchy;
- role of non preferred terms; and
- use of the scope notes.
- Guidance on the use of the most significant and unique subject terms, avoiding those that are too general to describe a particular resource.
- Guidance on how metadata creators can create their own combination of terms to uniquely describe a resource, noting that most concepts are represented by a single word or phrase. Using two (or more) terms in the same record can create new concepts.
For example, the term Aged care policy will not be found in TAGS, but by using Aged care; Social policy in the metadata record, searchers will have been given the ability to search on this concept. This is known as post coordinate indexing.
- Guidance on how metadata creators can also add more specific terms from another thesaurus, such as an Agency thesaurus by repeating the Subject element.
What about TAGS and commercial AGLS tools?
Commercial AGLS tool providers should be contacted directly for information on the integration of TAGS with their product.
What future development are in line for TAGS?
AGIMO is considering developing a searchable version that can be integrated with authoring tools for dynamic lookup.
Contact for information on this page: webpublishing@finance.gov.au