The Global Marketplace for Forest Information

Why should we create metadata?

Users

Information providers

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."

Metadata standardsMetadata 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

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.

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.

GFIS Metadata

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

GFIS Metadata Elements (I)

Mandatory DC fields: DC Description GFIS Information Provider

Title The name given to the resource by the CREATOR or PUBLISHER

Creator The person(s) or organisations primarily responsible for the intellectual content of the resource

Subject Here: Subject Keywords: free text(user-defined keywords)

Type Category of the resource: e.g. homepage, novel, technical report etc.

Format Data representation of the resource such as text/html, ASCII, or JPEG image etc.

Identifier String or number to uniquely identify the resource (e.g. ISBN, ISSN, URL in case of online resources)

Language Language of intellectual content of the resource

GFIS Metadata Elements (II)

Desirable DC fields: DC Description GFIS Information Provider

Contributor Persons or organisations in addition to those specified in the CREATOR element.

Publisher The entity responsible for the information content

Relation The relation of this resource to other resources (e.g. images in a document)

Description A textual description of the resource

Source A string used to identify the work from which this resource was derived.

Date The date the resource was made available in its present form.

Coverage Spatial or temporal characteristics of the resource (e.g. country, region etc.)

Rights Link to a copy right notice

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

12/2000Fire Atlas

AfricaSource:

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…

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.

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

Challenges IIMetadata 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.

Do NOT try to do everything

AT ONCE.

Links: http://dublincore.org/http://www.searchtools.com/

Thank you for

your attention!