Metadata Pilot at the Department for Education and Skills, UK

Abstract

This paper describes the Department for Education and Skills' (DfES) practical approach to tackling metadata and surrounding issues. A metadata pilot project was set up by the Library and Information Services Team to develop a metadata scheme for departmental use. Using the Dublin Core based e-Government Metadata Standard (e-GMS), Library staff developed a draft metadata standard for departmental web pages. Library staff applied the metadata standard by metatagging pages on a test web site. The metatagged pages were tested against the search engine. Work started on the pilot in September 2001. The pilot was successfully completed in November 2001. Further developments are ongoing.