General meeting minutes

Meeting held on 10 February 2004 at the Southbank Campus Library of Southbank Institute of TAFE. The meeting opened at 6:00pm.

Present: Anne Collins, Jennifer Parker, Sharon Uthmann, Mary Brewer, Helen Trochoulias, Maree Watson, Marilyn Gothard, Vicki Newman, Trish D'arcy, Anna Johnson, Sue Sawyer, Jennie Nicholl, Margaret Mowberry, Ian Maddox.

Apologies: Jo-Anne Dusha, Amanda Gardner, Yvonne Brock, Denise Cadman.

Presentation

Marilyn Chalmers, Southbank Institute of TAFE campus manager, gave a presentation outlining how she developed the Southbank metadata project which involved standardising the structure and terminology of all the information on the Institute's new and innovative website. It was a major investment in organising and maintaining data to enhance its operations and Marilyn admitted that it was a steep learning curve for her.

Metadata - simply does it!

Matadata describes an information resource through a set of words and phrases. It is a design element created to assist in the client/information interaction process - it provides the essential link between the information creator and the information user. Metadata may be deployed in a number of ways:

Embedding the metadata in the Web page by the creator or their agent using META tags in the HTML coding of the page (similar to the CIP data printed on the verso of a book)
As a separate HTML document linked to the resource it describes
In a database linked to the resource. The records may either have been directly created within the database or extracted from another source, such as web pages.

Southbank Institute decided to use basic language META tags based on a combination of three metadata standards: Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI), Australian Government Locator Service (AGLS) and Education Network Australia (EDNA). Even though there were many metadata tools available on the internet (eg Dublin Core Editor which makes available free metamaker tag builders) the project staff decided against using them. They recommended the selection of only three metatags, namely title, keywords and description as not all search engines support Dublin Code. The focus was on the terms or content which should be added to the web pages to provide the best possible search query matches. Metatags are designed to give search engines instructions on what a web page is about and how they should treat it. The benefits of using combined metadata schemas are the easier location and retrieval of information by search engines through more accurate description of web pages (eg using metatags).

When the issue of metatags was resolved the question about vocabulary then arose. After a number of thesauri were evaluated the project team decided to compile a vocabulary which incorporated terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), the Australian Thesaurus of Educational Descriptors (ATED) and the Vocational Education and Training Research Database Thesaurus (VOCED). They added, as well, terms, or phrases, which were specific to the Southbank Institute (SBI Specific). Using a PowerPoint presentation Marilyn demonstrated how the SBI Specific vocabulary was constructed and finally inserted into a template which was then uploaded into the website. She went on to explain the benefits of using such a customised thesaurus: consistency in terminology; a more reliable and higher quality process of information retrieval; and it is more cost-effective in regards to staff and time. She then gave the following tips for those considering taking on a similar task:

Take the time to evaluate and identify the metadata schema which best meets your organisation's needs.
Decide which aspects of each schema are essential for what you need to achieve.
Ensure the schema being applied are current versions.

In closing, Marilyn admitted that the metadata project was an ongoing process. Data has to be continually monitored and updated as the vocabulary grows, but she said although metadata creation now forms part of her routine tasks it only takes a small amount of time to perform.

Jennifer presented Marilyn with a gift and thanked her for her presentation.

Announcements

Library Tour - Saturday 27 March. Ipswich City Council Library 9-10am followed by morning tea (provided by Ipswich Library), Ipswich Hospital Library 11:00am-12:00pm followed by lunch at own expense (venue TBA), UQ Ipswich Campus Library 2:00pm-3:00pm. ALIA members free - $5.00 charge for non-members

Annual Dinner - Tuesday 25 May, Skyline Restaurant, COTAH, Southbank Institute of TAFE - includes presentation to the winner of the QLD Library Technician of the Year (Recent Graduate) Award

AGM - June. Guest speaker and venue TBA

The meeting closed at 7:30pm.

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