THE NORDIC METADATA TEMPLATE AND TOOL
The purpose with this document is to offer end-users an introduction on how to create descriptive metadata records for information resources (i.e. electronic documents), and in particular to give step-by-step guidelines when using the Nordic Metadata creation tool developed within the Nordic Metadata Project. The Nordic Metadata Creation Tool has adapted both the HTML 4.0 syntax and the HTML 2.0/3.2 syntax.
BASIC STEPS :
- First, read this document to get an overview of what the Nordic Metadata Project offer and provide in terms of
tools, documentation and service.
- Read the documentation provided by the project:
- In order to get information about the Dublin Core specification implemented in our tool, you can read either the
Extended User Guide or the
Short User Guide.
- In order to get information about the Dublin Core specification implemented in our tool, you can read either the
- Describe your WWW page using the
Dublin Core Metadata Template,
We also provide a Short DC metadata template for simple DC metadata enhancement. - Fill in all necessary fields that will describe your WWW document. You can either fill in
free-text (as in the Title element), or make a selection from an enumerated list
(as in the Type and Language element)
- If you want to repeat a fields, you just press the "+"
button for that element.
If you want to exclude one or more elements, you press the "-"
button.
- It is suggested that you fill in as many fields as possible.
- Together with all 15 elements in the template there are separate help-pages provided
with each element (see help-page for the Title element).
These help-pages are presented in separate windows and can therefore be used during the process
of metadata description.
- When creating DC metadata for inclusion in your html-documents, you can choose between
the HTML 4.0 syntax or
the HTML 2.0/3.2 syntax.
- Use your text editor and paste the returned Dublin Core metadata record into your
HTML page between the <HEAD>
< /HEAD> elements.
If you are uncertain of what to do that, please look at
the View | Document Source... in your WWW browser, and look at the <HEAD> < /HEAD> area of this page. - Finally, don't forget to fill in the Evaluation form.
This will help us to make this tool better for you!
BASIC DUBLIN CORE ELEMENT SYNTAX
For the moment, the Dublin Core consists of a set of 15 elements, which are embedded into HTML 2.0 or HTML 4.0 (recommendations). The HTML specification is generic, which means that other alternative sets of metadata could be embedded within HTML. At a general level, a Dublin Core entry coded within HTML has the following syntax :
<META NAME="DC.Element name" CONTENT="value of element">
Together with the example below, we will try to decompose and describe the basic DC syntax construction for a single element. For our purpose, we will use the TITLE element as an example. The DC syntax for an element can be described as containing :
- The HTML <META> element
with the corresponding NAME and CONTENT attributes as follows :
<META NAME="..." CONTENT="...">. - Within the HTML
<META NAME="..."attribute, we insert
a)DC.which tells us that we use the DC element set, and
b) the name of the DC element:<META NAME="DC.Element name" ...".
I.e. the DC.Title tells us that we use the DC element set, and the DC element "Title" as defined by the Dublin Core specification. - Within the HTML
<META... CONTENT="...">attribute, we insert the value of the element:...CONTENT="value of element">
The <META> attribute CONTENT is used to allow a description of the value of the element (in this case Preben Hansen is the creator) - As an optional feature, we can use the < LINK> tag to define which SCHEME is being used and a URL pointer to the reference to the scheme used. In our Nordic metadata tool we are using the Dublin Core SCHEME (SCHEME.dc), followed by the URL were a reference of the creator element is defined according to the Dublin Core Working Group.
a short DC Metadata record (DC User Guidelines : chapter 5, and a full DC Metadata record (DC User Guidelines : chapter 7).
Finally, for an extended use of DC metadata, you find a description of how to use and interpret DC Qualifiers in the DC User Guidelines (Extended) : chapter 6. This chapter explains the use of both the TYPE and SCHEME qualifier.
DC Metadata Template