Minnesota Metadata Guidelines Placing
D.C. into HTML
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Minnesota
Metadata Guidelines - Dublin Core
What is metadata? The Foundations Project has developed information architecture to improve public access to environmental information within Minnesota State agencies. Called the Minnesota Metadata Guidelines - Dublin Core, this information architecture also enhances Internet search and retrieval accuracy. The guidelines include the following: 15 qualified metatag elements known as the Dublin Core, the Legislative Indexing Vocabluary thesaurus, the Ultraseek search engine, TagGen metatagging software, and the processes for incorporation of metadata into electronic resources. The latter is called Best Practice Guidelines for Web Metadata. For more information, please see the Minnesota Historical Society's Metadata Resources site. An annotated list of pointers to other Internet sites can be found here, which deal with a variety of metadata-related topics including the Dublin Core (DS), GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and GILS (Global/Government Information Locator Services). Metadata and the Dublin Core Elements Metadata is data that describes information or data associated with an object that describes it. As metadata is stored within the <HEAD> area of a Web page, it is not visible to Web browsers. This embedding in the page also allows the metadata to remain current when the document is created, moved or updated. The ability to search and find information is enhanced by controlled vocabularies linked to the metadata elements. In addition, as metadata is combined with controlled subject indexes, it allows more precise searching and document management. The Foundations Project has adopted the 15-element metadata set called the Dublin Core for describing network-accessible materials. This core set of metadata elements is defined by the Dublin Core Working Group. Endorsed by the W3 Consortium in 1998, it has been approved as National Information Standards Institute (NISO) standard number Z39.85 as well as receiving American National Standards Institute (ANSI) approval. As the collection of electronic documents on Minnesota Agency Internets (and intranets) grows, metadata is emerging as a powerful tool to find useful information. Placed in Web pages, metadata will allow information to be found more easily and accurately. It also can be used for records management and archiving. Metadata helps search accuracy on commercial search engines, too. Finally, the guidelines allow standards to be developed that relate to electronic document cataloging, retrieval or archiving using Dublin Core Elements. Qualified Dublin Core and the Minnesota Metadata Guidelines - DC There are several reasons for adopting Dublin Core in Minnesota:
1. Content: Title, Subject, Description, Source, Language, Relation,
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