edna and metadata
edna uses metadata to:
- assist with user searches by allowing a detailed specification of the type of material being sought (providing a more refined search than conventional search engines)
- weight search results so that words contained in certain metadata elements are given priority over words in the other elements
- allocate items to categories in the edna browse directory
- assist with management of edna content
- provide general cataloguing information which can enable documents in the edna repository to be searched by other search engines (for example, to allow documents entered in edna to be searched by libraries)
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edna metadata application profiles
- Current metadata profile for edna resources and events, including edna vocabularies
What is metadata and why use it?
The Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) offers this definition. 'Metadata is structured information that is created specifically to describe another resource. It provides basic information such as the author, the date of creation and the subject matter of the item described. Metadata can be compared to a library catalogue record that facilitates discovery of a particular work by providing information such as title, author, publisher, subject, description of the work, location, etc.'
Consistent cataloguing of online resources maximises opportunities for searchers to find the most relevant and comprehensive set of resources for their purposes. Metadata can also be used to organise, store and retrieve items for information management purposes. The advantage of using a metadata standard is that data sets will interoperate with other sets that use the same standard.
Metadata standards
Within the international education community there are two key metadata standards: the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) and IEEE LOM v.10 metadata.
The edna metadata standard was first published in August 1998 and version 1.1 was ratified in December 2000 by the edna standards subcommittee (later known as the AICTEC Standards subcommittee). This standard has not been updated since 2002. In its current form it has limitations and does not meet well the emerging needs of many educational projects.
The new edna metadata application profile is based on the internationally recognised Dublin Core Metadata Element Set and is consistent with the Australian Government Locator Service (AGLS).
