Metadata for Citizens’ Information

1. Metadata for Citizens’ Information Paul Miller Interoperability Focus UK Office for Library & Information Networking (UKOLN) P.Miller@ukoln.ac.uk http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ UKOLN is funded by the Library and Information Commission, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the Higher Education Funding Councils, as well as by project funding from the JISC and the European Union. UKOLN also receives support from the Universities of Bath and Hull where staff are based.

2. “No man is an island” Donne, John, 1572–1631

3. The University for Industry “Connected Government” Community Information Services (CIS) 6,672 pages of UK ‘community information’. National Electronic Library for Health “No citizen is an island” NGDF Metadata Project/ UKSGB The National Grid for Learning The Peoples’ Network 25% of Government services available electronically by 2002 “Cool Britannia” New Opportunities Fund A Netful of Jewels Interactive Digital TV

4. Standard solutions The nice thing about standards… …is that there are so many to choose from!

5. So… why use standards? • Benefit from the expertise of others • Standards are (often!) compiled by groups of very knowledgeable people… and you can’t afford to employ them all yourself… • Enforce rigour in internal practices • Standards are means of asserting control over the resource, allowing you to manage it more effectively • Facilitate interoperability (and access) • Community Information originates from multiple sources, and has many potential uses • Considered deployment of standard solutions makes access to those resources feasible for many • A virtual CIS for London?

6. What do standards do? • Help identify what’s important • GILS “Access Points” • Dublin Core elements • Mandatory fields • Allow for consistent use of terminology • Name Authority Files • Thesauri • Look–up tables • Enable internal and external data exchange • Reduce duplication of effort • Minimise (hopefully!) wasted effort • Reflect consensus.

7. What types of standard are there? • Terminology • ‘East Riding of Yorkshire’, not ‘North Humberside’ • ‘City of York Council’ is preferred to ‘York City Council’ • Format • ‘Miller, A.P. 1971–’, not ‘Paul Miller’ • Discovery/ Semantics/ DBMS • A gross simplification, and a very big bucket • ‘Creator’, ‘Subject’, ‘Title’, ‘Description’… • Syntax • <RDF xmlns = “http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-rdf-syntax#”> • Transfer • ftp://ftp.niso.org/… .

8. What is ‘Metadata’? • meaningless jargon • ora fashionable, and terribly misused, term for what we’ve always done • or“a means of turning data into information” • and“data about data” • andthe name of a public servant (‘Tony Blair’) • andthe title of legislation (‘the Freedom of Information Act’).

9. Metadata Standards “Paul Miller gave a really interesting talk about Dublin Core at the Institute of Physics in London” • In London, or in Dublin? • About Physics and about milling? • But what was it?

10. Metadata Standards <speaker>“Paul Miller</speaker> gave a <value judgement>really interesting</value judgement> talk about <subject>Dublin Core</subject> at the <location>Institute of Physics in London”</location>.

11. Functions, features, and cool stuff Simplicity and interoperability Challenges Opportunities • Many flavours of metadata • which one do I use? • Managing change • new varieties, and evolution of existing forms • Tension between functionality and simplicity, extensibility and interoperability

12. Introducing the Dublin Core • An attempt to improve resource discovery on the Web • now adopted more broadly • Building an interdisciplinary consensus about a core element set for resource discovery • simple and intuitive • cross–disciplinary — not just libraries!! • international • open and consensual • flexible. See http://purl.org/dc/

13. Introducing the Dublin Core • 15 elements of descriptive metadata • All elements optional • All elements repeatable • The whole is extensible • offers a starting point for semantically richer descriptions • Interdisciplinary • libraries, government, museums, archives… • International • available in more than 20 languages, with more on the way...

14. Introducing the Dublin Core • Title • Creator • Subject • Description • Publisher • Contributor • Date • Type • Format • Identifier • Source • Language • Relation • Coverage • Rights http://purl.org/dc/

15. The Dublin Core and Public Sector information • Global/Government Information Locator Service • Richer set of Access Points, offering enhanced functionality within a domain • Maps well to Dublin Core • Next version likely to entirely adopt DC1.1 semantics • Integrated well with Z39.50 for distributed search • Australian Government Locator Service • Based closely upon Dublin Core • Adds information on Audience, Availability, Mandate, and Function. See http://www.gils.net/ See http://www.naa.gov.au/govserv/agls/

16. Introducing Z39.50 • International Standard (ISO 23950) • Originally library–centric • Permits remote searching of databases • Access via Z client or over web • Relies upon ‘Profiles’ • GILS Profile for government information See http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue21/

17. Z39.50 Challenges • Profiles for each discipline • Defeats interoperability? • Bib–1 bloat • Largely invisible • Seen as complicated • Seen as expensive • Seen as old–fashioned • Surely no match for XML/RDF/whatever.

18. Access to Citizens’ Information • Local Museums • People’s Network • Public Libraries • People’s Network • The Post Office • Schools and Colleges • The National Grid for Learning • Local Authority Offices • Government.direct ? • Citizens’ Advice Bureaux • Public Information Kiosks • ‘The Internet’ • The Internet. CommonStandards

19. Some pointers • Interoperability Focus • http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/interop–focus/ • ‘Interoperability’ Mailing List • http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/interoperability/ • Dublin Core • http://purl.org/dc/ • GILS • http://www.gils.net/ • AGLS • http://www.naa.gov.au/govserv/agls/ • …and the flyer in your pack…