Section A: Overview of NZGLS

Who needs this information?

This section is for managers and people developing a metadata creation process in their organisation.

Purpose

Here we introduce the concept of metadata and provide guidelines on how you can get started.

The most current version of the manual

You can get the most current version of the NZGLS Metadata Standard and of this Usage Guide from the NZGLS maintenance agency (currently Archives New Zealand) or online at: http://www.nzgls.govt.nz/ Contact us for queries at: mailto:nzgls@ssc.govt.nz

A.1. Background to Metadata

A.1.1. What is metadata?

Most simply, metadata is data about data.

Your business card or telephone book listing is metadata about you; a library index card is metadata about a book in a collection...and so on.

More formally, metadata is structured information about the characteristics of a resource. (A 'resource' can be a document, service or agency.) A metadata record consists of a set of elements. These describe a resource in a consistent and efficient way. So, someone looking for the resource is more likely to find it.

A.1.2. 'Discovery level' metadata

The NZGLS Metadata Standard is for the creation of discovery-level metadata, - metadata that is useful to people when trying to find things or resources. This metadata set overlaps with the metadata required for administrative and recordkeeping purposes.

Throughout this document, 'metadata' refers to discovery-level metadata.

A.1.3. Administrative and recordkeeping metadata

Administrative metadata is information which is used for keeping track of the metadata of the resource. For example, information which shows when NZGLS metadata was created or updated and who was responsible for doing so. This standard does not cover administrative metadata.

Recordkeeping metadata is information which is used for managing the resource. A standard and supporting tools for recordkeeping metadata are being developed by Archives New Zealand. Visit the 'Continuum' section of the Archives New Zealand web site. http://www.archives.govt.nz/continuum/index.html

A.1.4. New Zealand Government web portals

The New Zealand Government is collecting metadata descriptions for key resources that someone might search for via the web - whether it is an agency, a public service, a document, web page, or a statue in front of Parliament Buildings. This metadata is used as the basis for the all-of-government portal and some sector - focused portals.

• The all-of-government portal is being redesigned in 2004 around services from central government and state sector agencies: www.govt.nz.
• "Worksite" is designed for employers and employees: www.worksite.govt.nz.
• "Biz" is designed for business people: www.biz.org.nz.
• "Ted" is designed for people interested in information, services and organisations relevant to tertiary education in New Zealand: www.ted.govt.nz.

The NZGLS metadata standard aids consistency and supports the government interoperability framework (e-GIF). This means that people searching Government web portals will get a comprehensive and consistent view across Government agencies. They will also see some of the metadata elements in the standard search result, allowing them to make informed choices and to find relevant and meaningful information.

A.2. The NZGLS Standard

A.2.1. The Government mandate

Because it is critical to the achievement of e-government goals, the New Zealand Government requires use of NZGLS metadata to support the discovery of its resources.

Cabinet Minute [CAB Min (01) 38/2B] sets out that:

• the NZGLS Metadata Standard will be the official New Zealand Government standard for creating discovery level metadata in the public sector;
• the Public Service, the New Zealand Police, the New Zealand Defence Force, the Parliamentary Counsel Office, the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service, and the Government Communications Security Bureau are to become NZGLS 'compliant' (as specified in paragraph A.11.1 of the NZGLS Metadata Standard) from 30 June 2002 onwards;
• the wider State sector is to be encouraged to achieve NZGLS compliance on the same basis as the Public Service; and
• local authorities are invited to achieve NZGLS compliance on this basis.

Go to Section A.11 of this document to view the basis for compliance.

A.2.2. Where did our standard come from?

Our standard is closely based on AGLS (Australian Government Locator Service). This is the Australian government's extension of the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (DCMES). AGLS was designed to support the description of services, as well as more traditional information resources.

The Dublin Core Metadata Element Set has been adopted in many countries and across many industry and government sectors. [Refer to "Adoption of Dublin Core by Governments" http://www.dublincore.org/news/adoption/]

A.2.3. Why a common standard?

Adopting a single discovery-level metadata standard ensures that metadata will be

• coordinated;
• cost-effective; and
• client-focused.

A single standard makes it possible for people to search on the Internet for information without needing to know which agency produced it, or to find services without knowing which agency delivers it.

A common standard also makes it possible for different systems to communicate their existence and characteristics to other electronic applications or search tools. It also permits efficient migration of information from one application or search system to another.

A.2.4. Changes in standards in the future

NZGLS is an evolving standard. Like the standards it is based upon, it will be developed in response to user needs. Changes to Dublin Core, especially the development of a DC-Gov Application Profile, and AGLS will be considered for inclusion in future versions of NZGLS. This maintains consistency and NZGLS's interoperability with DC-aware systems, and allows New Zealand to benefit from the expertise and experience of other communities.

To give stability, as far as practicable, changes to the standard will take the form of minor refinements and additions, rather than major alterations. Wherever possible, future revisions to the NZGLS standard will be backwardly compatible with earlier versions of the standard. This means that NZGLS metadata created under a previous version of the standard would remain valid.

A.3. Why Use Metadata?

A.3.1. Primary functions of metadata

A huge number of resources are available within organisations, across the Government and across the world. Metadata allows us to describe these resources in simple, small, defined packages of information that use consistent language.

Metadata serves three separate, but interrelated functions simultaneously:

• Direct resource discovery by the public, for example on www.govt.nz. Many resources are published online so that people can access the resource for themselves. By creating metadata, you maximise the chance of people finding the resource. Metadata is also used for sectoral web portals to select appropriate content.
• Information sharing and exchange between agencies and their partners.
• The information management needs of organisations. Software tools can be configured to use the metadata to create searchable central indexes of agency web resources.

A.3.2. Positive secondary effects of metadata

Metadata can have secondary beneficial impacts, including:

• Cataloguing an organisation's resources to help users decide if a resource is worth obtaining or reading.
• Stocktaking an agency's resources.
• Providing instructions about access to non-electronic resources.
• Publishing government resources via the Internet to anyone in the world.

A.4. Metadata for External Customers

A.4.1. Who uses metadata?

Anyone searching online, using the Government web portal or related sectoral portals, for government resources will encounter and use NZGLS metadata. If agencies choose to take advantage of the NZGLS metadata standard, then internal searches, or inter-agency shared-workspace searches will also benefit.

A.4.2. How will the public access it?

Government agencies will provide NZGLS metadata to the Metalogue system for use in government web portals. These provide a search interface for the public. The search results give links to information at agencies' websites for online material, or details about how to obtain the information if it is not available online.

Agencies may also use metadata in search functions provided upon their own websites.

A.4.3. How metadata helps searches

Good metadata helps people find the information they're looking for. A search through unstructured text (i.e. a full-text search) or uncontrolled terminology (i.e. keywords) may yield tens of thousands of results, the vast majority of which are often completely irrelevant to the searcher. The structure of metadata allows searching for terms in discrete elements (e.g. title, subject) of metadata records. The resulting search results are smaller and more focused. Displaying the metadata makes it easier for more people to find out about the resource and decide if it is likely to be useful to them.

A.4.4. Issues to consider

Each agency needs to consider its communities' needs:

• What services and other resources are used most?
• At what level do they think about, or want to find, resources?
• Do they need individual documents, or collections of documents?
• What is the essential information to describe the resources? I.e. what will they need to know to decide which resources

Analysis of user demands and expectations is useful when working out the level of detail to apply with NZGLS metadata. [Refer also to Section A.10]

A.4.5. Quality is important

Providing poor quality metadata can be worse than providing none at all. Quality control and consistency are important. If a Web resource, for example, lacks essential metadata, or if the metadata is inaccurate or incorrect, search engines will omit results that should be returned for that enquiry or display results that discredit the website and the organisation supplying the information. Standards such as NZGLS help organisations to provide consistent quality metadata. [Refer also to Section A.8.9]

A.5. Internal Business Metadata Use

A.5.1. NZGLS metadata can be used to meet internal business needs

The internal use of NZGLS metadata, for example on intranets, may assist agencies to meet their internal information discovery needs.

A.5.2. How organisations can extend the NZGLS standard to meet their own needs

NZGLS is designed to be extensible. Organisations with specific metadata needs can use extra elements and qualifiers along with the basic NZGLS standard. Such extensions must be designed so that if they are ignored the remaining metadata makes sense (i.e. devolves into plain NZGLS metadata).

A.5.3. Using other agency systems which already capture metadata

All electronic record keeping systems generate, capture and manage metadata. Many agencies will already have systems for:

• Document management.
• Content management.
• Recordkeeping.

As far as is practicable, agencies should draw metadata automatically from such systems to avoid tedious manual re-entry and minimise the risk of inconsistencies. However, before doing so, the metadata has to be reliable and appropriate for this new use.

A.5.4. Benefits of a unified metadata regime

The intention is to have a unified regime for metadata across government departments. Agencies will be able to implement recordkeeping or other metadata standards, consistent with the NZGLS standard, and which dovetail with it. In this way, metadata would be created once but used many times for different purposes.

A.5.5. Practical implications

Agencies may need to re-design work practices and carry out some technological process changes so that all their automatic metadata creation is compatible with NZGLS metadata.

A.6. Preliminary Choices

Each agency should consider the following before beginning the creation of NZGLS-compliant metadata records:

A.6.1.Decide which services and resources to describe

Resources include government services (provided online or offline), documents on web servers, collections of videos, an agency, people or even physical objects such as statues. NZGLS is designed so it can be used to describe whatever resources an agency might choose to create discovery-level metadata for. Consider:

• People who will be searching the government web portal as a main source of information on agency services and resources.
• Agency interactions with clients, including knowledge of demand for individual services and resources.
• Any services or resources the agency wishes to highlight.
• Available resources to undertake the work.

A.6.2. What gets described can be online or offline

NZGLS metadata can be used to describe resources that are online or offline. For example, services not available online should still be described using NZGLS metadata. Similarly, a publication provided over the counter but not available on the Internet can still be described.

A.6.3. Description of groups of resources or individual resources

NZGLS provides the flexibility to describe individual resources and/or collections of resources. Agencies should normally describe resources at the level at which those resources are expected to be used. For example, if a set of documents is always, and only, used together then a single metadata record is appropriate. Each agency will need to decide the appropriate level of description, so that people can access the appropriate resource without being overwhelmed by an initial choice between too many resources. [Detailed guidance is given in Section B.5.]

Creation of a collection-level record does not prevent you from also making item-level records. Providing both might, in some instances, provide the best service to users. For example, a collection-level record might be created for the National Collection of War Art held by Archives New Zealand, but also each painting might have an individual record.

The relationship between parts and a larger whole can be indicated using the Relation element.

Descriptions for groups of resources might be appropriate for cases such as:

• High-level web pages where people can drill down to get to the information they need.
• Collections of physical resources such as photographs.
• Collections that are publicly known by a particular name.
• Data sets, including databases and library catalogues.
• A service or function that has a common name, but may have distinct variants for particular circumstances.
• A searchable index that acts as a portal.

When describing a service, agencies will need to decide whether to describe:

• The broad range of the service on one high-level metadata record, or
• Each variation of a service on separate metadata records.

If the portions of the service are provided by another agency, then there will need to be collaboration between the agencies in creating the metadata.

For online resources, NZGLS metadata-based searches should lead the searchers to a point on the website from where they can easily find the exact resource they want. For example, an agency could create collection-level metadata for the main pages on its website. This could work well if the agency's resources are tightly focussed around a few functions or services, or might be appropriate when searchers should drill-down through the site to the resources they need. The need to have users drill-down may arise because essential information on the context of the information may be presented on the higher-level pages.

On an agency website, collection-level resources might, for example, be based upon:

• The home page - the collection being the web site;
• The media release access page - the collection being the media releases;
• The front page for a collection of resources on a specific topic.

Or, you may choose to create metadata for each page or item on a website, then each page would become an individual item - including the high-level entry pages. This can be very efficient from the user's perspective.

A.6.4.Recommendation - start with high-level collection-level records

If an agency has identifiable collections of resources - such as those found together on a particular section of an agency website - then this is the place to begin. Doing the high-level collection-level records first will:

• Make the creation of item-level records more efficient later on;
• Provide good coverage of records for the searching public as quickly as possible;
• Achieve rapid compliance with the NZGLS standard, and
• Assist external search engines and end users by providing a small amount of targeted metadata, rather than a large amount of detailed metadata.

A.6.5.Decide whether to extend NZGLS to meet the agency's needs

While NZGLS is designed so that it can readily be extended, agencies should consider carefully before doing so whether the extension is worthwhile given the purpose of the metadata. Only if the extra work, care and complexity are judged to be worthwhile to the users of the metadata should an agency add elements or element qualifiers. If you extend the metadata then notify the NZGLS maintenance agency of any changes to ensure compliance.

A.7. Agency Implementations of Metadata

A.7.1.Set the standards for your agency

NZGLS defines a wide range of possibilities for metadata. You may find it helpful to prepare a document detailing which elements, qualifiers, encoding schemes and default values you will use.

A.7.2.Set the standards for each element

The aim is to achieve consistency within agencies in the completion of agency metadata records. Based upon the guidance in this manual, you should decide:

• A consistent way to complete each free-text element, e.g. Description: the length of description; Title: official titles or commonly known titles.
• The appropriate level of detail in each element, where there is potential for degrees of detail within any element - remembering only to include the detail that a searcher needs.
• Which encoding schemes or thesauri to use.
• Which language(s) to use.

A.7.3.Decide which elements to use

Some NZGLS elements are mandatory or conditional (mandatory in some circumstances), others are recommended or optional. Depending upon the nature of the resources an agency is describing, it may be practicable to decide in advance not to use some of the optional elements. The guiding question is:

"Which set of elements will, if completed, provide a meaningful description of the service or resource to enable discovery?"

A.7.4.Identify Elements with common information

Some elements will generally have the same information for each record the agency creates, e.g. Creator.

A.7.5.Select terms from the thesauri

The thesauri used with NZGLS generally have a wide scope. You may wish to offer your metadata creators a limited selection of terms to use. The aim is to minimise the reviewing of and selecting from all thesaurus terms, when each agency will commonly use a smaller subset of terms.

A.7.6.Element default values

You may be able to set default values for some elements to simplify metadata entry.

A.7.7. Questions of detail

Bear the following in mind when deciding how to design your agency's approach to metadata:

• How can this metadata help searchers to locate the resources being described?
• Which parts of the NZGLS metadata set are most meaningful for the particular resources involved?
• Which metadata is readily available within the agency's systems?

A.8. Business Management Issues

A.8.1. Planning

If your agency uses NZGLS metadata, you need to include how to create and manage NZGLS metadata in your overall information management plans. Planning considerations include:

• Time required to create metadata records.
• Existing business processes and their suitability for creating NZGLS metadata records.
• Design of an ongoing process to continually monitor and reassess the agency's needs in terms of metadata.

A.8.2. Key decisions to be made

You should make the following decisions for agency business management purposes:

• Which categories of resources do you want to be found?
• How should these resources be prioritised for the creation of metadata?
• Who in the agency will create and maintain the metadata, and when will they create it?
• How will the organisation manage quality control, training and changes in standards?
• If the metadata is to be used for more than just the Government web portals, where will the metadata be stored?
• Collaboration where services are shared across agencies.

A.8.3.Other issues to consider

In assessing the importance of metadata to your agency, please consider:

• Usefulness of resource discovery via the Internet to your customers
• Gaps where there is low visibility for a resource which needs its awareness raised
• The advantages for both your agency and its customers of customers being able to find information without having to request assistance from you.

A.8.4. Help available with training

The E-government Unit of SSC arranges Metalogue training as well as material and assistance to agencies that wish to carry out training themselves for their staff.

Archives New Zealand can give you advice on NZGLS.

A.8.5. Business cases

You can base any business cases for adopting metadata in your agency on the following criteria:

• People have a seamless method for accessing government resources (that requires less intervention by agency staff).
• People can find government resources without knowing government structure.
• Accessing government resources is simple.
• High-quality information and services are readily available.
• Metadata helps Government have a consistent procedure for managing its own information.
• Metadata supports an effective infrastructure for distributing Government resources.

A.8.6. Tools

Tools can be developed or adapted to make it easy to create metadata. For example, content management systems already require much of the same information.

Elements such as Subject, Function, Rights, Audience and Mandate should have controlled vocabularies or thesauri that go with them, so people make a selection from a controlled list.

For government web portals the metadata must, currently, be entered into the tool provided called "Metalogue". This tool supports the preferred encoding schemes for many elements.

A.8.7. Time and money

Agencies need to allow for maintenance of existing metadata and for creating metadata for new resources.

It is most cost effective to create metadata as early as possible in the life of a resource - ideally when the resource is created or published.

A.8.8. Maintenance of metadata

NZGLS metadata is dynamic in that as agencies make changes to resources then the metadata needs to be updated. Metadata for any given resource can be created, revised, added to and improved as often as required.

Providing out-of-date metadata can be worse than providing no metadata. Out-of-date metadata misleads and even makes it less likely for people to find what they are searching for.

NZGLS metadata cannot just be created once and then forgotten about. It needs to be actively managed for as long as the resource described is available to the public. As the resource evolves or changes, the metadata should reflect these changes. [Refer Section B.6 for detail]

A.8.9. Quality assurance

It is highly advisable for one person's work to be reviewed by another, in the same manner as any other information prepared for publication.

A.8.10. Storage of metadata

To collect the metadata for the government web portals the E-Government Unit of SCC currently requires that the metadata be entered into a web-based tool they provide called "Metalogue". The metadata records are then managed centrally.

You will need to make your own arrangements for access and storage of metadata for all other uses you put it to. [Refer also to Section A.6]

A.8.11. Guidance on archiving decisions

Archives New Zealand develops policies and guidance about how to archive electronic records (including metadata) and publishes these in the 'Continuum' section of the Archives New Zealand web site: http://www.archives.govt.nz/continuum/index.html

A.9. The "Metadata Manager" Role

Each organisation will need to assign a person to the role of NZGLS metadata manager.

This person should have discretion to decide which resources require metadata. This person will also have responsibility for deciding how NZGLS is used in their own agency.

The metadata manager will be responsible for ensuring the agency's compliance with the government's requirement to provide NZGLS metadata. Other managers and supervisors across the organisation will need to be made aware of their responsibilities and do whatever is required to provide the metadata.

One of the most important aspects of the metadata manager's quality control role is making sure there are processes and procedures in place for keeping metadata up-to-date.

In small agencies, this person is likely to create metadata, and may have to perform the quality assurance role as well.

In larger agencies, they may arrange training for metadata creators, and either manage the quality assurance process or perform that role themselves.

A.10. Compliance - Resources to Describe

This list provides guidance on the minimum set of resources that require discovery-level metadata. Most agencies will want to create more records than this minimum in order to gain the best cost/benefit advantage from the provision of resource-discovery services and direct access to published resources.

• Each government agency's succinct description of itself. A clear, precise description.
• Topics and services in high demand. Each organisation will know what the communities it serves want of them and should aim to meet the greatest needs first.
• Entitlements to government assistance or obligations. Where citizens need to understand their entitlements to assistance or their obligations, metadata must be provided.
• Online service channels. Pages that provide an actual online service channel to the public such as payment forms or applications etc will require metadata.
• Pages supplying essential information.
• Pages which are required to meet an organisation's obligations to its prescribed community for legal or service reasons.
• Specific online services and indexes. Entry points to specific online service channels and indexes (such as entry points to library catalogues or legal databases) all need metadata.
• Home pages. The major entry point to an organisation or distinct business unit where there is likely to be a public perception of a separate entity.
• Major formal publications. These include: annual reports, corporate strategic plans, public policy and accountability documents, and so on.
• Major reports about the agency and its functions by external parties. Where the external party cannot be expected to create the metadata record.
• Media releases.
• Major entry points for indexes and menus to closely related topics. Where programmes, policies or topics are linked inside an organisation, the entry point for these topics requires a metadata description.
• Information about the agency which affects the public. This includes information on agency powers, manuals and other documents used in decision-making affecting the public.
• Access points for common business processes as opposed to agency specific functions. These include such activities as recruitment, complaints or general enquiries.
• Descriptive or marketing information. This includes information about agencies, their services, their activities and their collections.
• What's contracted out? There should be a metadata description for information about services that have been contracted out.

A.11. Agency Compliance

A.11.1 An agency is considered to be NZGLS metadata compliant when:

• For all the resources described in the minimum set of resources, good quality NZGLS metadata has been created and made available to the Government web portals.
• The contents of the agency's entire website are described at an appropriate level of aggregation (e.g. at least index pages, intermediate level entry pages, etc).

A.11.2 Compliance using Metalogue

Metadata creators using Metalogue should discuss with the E-government Unit the metadata requirements of the government web portals.

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