CMS metadata elements and guidelines

This document outlines metadata element standards and guidelines for the creation of quality, consistent, metadata in order to find, reuse, manage and maintain web content in the Teamsite Content Management System. Metadata enables content authors and end users to improve searching and retrieval of relevant content. Metadata will make your site easier to find by the Monash search engine and shareable and accessible through global services. Metadata enables content authors to search the CMS for reusable content. Workflow metadata which may be automatically assigned by the Content Management System facilitates effective management of the content.

This is a work in progress. These guidelines will evolve as standards are redefined and extended, content authors and users provide suggestions and comments and changes required by the Metatagger implementation. These standards and guidelines have been developed in consultation with members of the CMS Metadata Working Party.

Metadata element summary

Alphabetically by element name.

Standards

The CMS metadata elements and guidelines are based on the Dublin Core element set and the Australian Government Locator Service.

The standard defines and describes a qualified version of DC / AGLS. It consists of 15 DC / AGLS data elements including mandatory and optional data elements/qualifiers and their permitted values. The DC element – Source is not used. This element is problematic to apply and in any case is adequately covered by the data element - Relation.basedOn. AGLS elements – Source, Availability, Function, Mandate are not used. CMS administrative metadata to control and manage the CMS workflow is also identified. Other subsets of metadata for specific information resources eg learning objects will be added. Mandatory data elements will be required to be completed before any content can be approved. Some data elements are repeatable. There is no defined order of the elements. (may be syntax dependent) Not all of the data elements are required at the time the resource is created. The metadata can be added to or updated at any time, by the content creator or other interested parties.

Data elements

The standard consists of data elements, qualifiers and content guidelines. Data elements describe the attributes of resources eg author, title, subject, date etc. The data elements are derived from the established standards, with the addition of some local data elements. Qualifiers are element refinements or encoding schemes. Qualifiers narrow the meaning of the data elements but are consistent with the meaning of the parent data element eg alternative title and main title; date and date modified. Encoding/classification schemes can be vocabulary encoding schemes eg LCSH, MeSH, ASRC / RFCD, APAIS, AGIFT or local lists of values (eg CMS Type vocabulary) or syntax encoding schemes eg ISO 8601, IMT, RFC 3066 etc.

Data element description

Each data element is defined and described under the following headings:

Element name:

The label assigned to the data element.

Element definition:

Description of the data element.

Obligation:

Indicates if the data element is required to always or sometimes be present. Values are Mandatory or Optional.

Qualifiers:

Element refinements make the meaning of the element narrower or more specific.

Classification:

Formal or local controlled vocabularies for consistency and accuracy of description.

Guidelines:

Content guidelines to assist in creating metadata records and promote best practice for describing resources

Data entry:

Form of input on metadata capture screen.- manual, semi-automated for editing or automated.

Examples:

Expressed in a generic form - rather than in a specific syntax eg HTML, XML.

Why Dublin Core?

The Dublin Core Element Set is:

• simple but effective for non specialists to create and maintain simple descriptive records.
• interoperable across the global information community. A common set of elements, provides terminology and practices which are universally supported and understood. Metadata can be harvested by global search engines and published output accessible worldwide.
• international in scope. Originally developed in English but versions are being created in many other languages
• extensible. The DC element set can be extended for additional resource discovery needs of local communities. DC can be used for core descriptive information while allowing for domain specific extensions.

Other standards and profiles consulted include:

• IEEE-LOM Learning Object Metadata Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,
• IMS Global Learning Consortium, Inc Learning Resource Meta-data Specification
• EdNA Metadata Standard
• CanCore Learning Resource Metadata Initiative
• COLIS Collaborative Online Learning and Information Services funded by DETYA
• Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM)
• Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) Library Application Profile
• The Le@rning Federation Metadata Application Profile (pdf, 1MB)
• National Library of Australia Web Site Metadata Strategies and Guidelines

Granularity

How much metadata should be applied to web documents? How much detail should be captured and represented in the metadata record?

The Dublin Core standard provides the desired degree of granularity to create simple but effective metadata records for most content in the CMS. In the CMS, all web pages will have a minimal set of data elements (author, title, publisher, date subject / keyword, description, type, language, rights, audience). Full metadata will be determined on a case by case basis. The level of detail required would be decided on what is considered relevant and important and how accessible the information needs to be for the users. Examples of pages that may have full metadata are index or collection level pages for sites, resources, services, activities, subjects. The Relation qualifier isPartOf. can be used to make it clear the individual pages form part of a larger resource.

Metadata capture screen

Metadata is applied to every piece of content as it is submitted into the CMS. The Teamsite Review Metadata screen will appear for editing by the content author. The metadata capture screen is currently manual but when MetaTagger is fully implemented it will apply metadata automatically to content which can be edited by the author if required before finishing the task.

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