AGLS Victoria: Metadata Implementation Manual

Version 3.0

A guide to the implementation and management of AGLS metadata in Victorian Government departments and agencies.

October 2006

Please email any comments you have about this manual to agls-queries@egov.vic.gov.au

The manual was prepared for the eServices Unit, Citizen Access and Transformation, Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development.

About this Manual

Introduction

The AGLS Victoria : Metadata Implementation Manual provides Victorian Government departmental and agency staff with practical advice and recommended approaches to the implementation and management of AGLS (Australia Government Locator Service) compliant metadata. Since the first version of this manual was released in August 2002, the AGLS metadata standard has gained further recognition and acceptance and is now recognised as Australian Standard (AS5044).

The implementation of AGLS metadata within your organisation requires planning, open communication and a clear commitment to the management of change. This manual is designed to help you:

• Understand the role of metadata in relation to your web initiative
• Understand Victorian metadata implementation requirements
• Manage the implementation of AGLS metadata within your agency
• Communicate your web activities to Victoria Online - your regional metadata-enabled, government search portal

Adding metadata to your web sites benefits your clients by:

• Helping them find information and services quickly and accurately when they:
  • don’t know what those resources are called
  • don’t know what Department has responsibility for particular information and services
• Showing them online what offline and non-textual services you offer and how to access them, eg. specialist over the counter services.
• Grouping your services with similar services from other agencies and across other tiers of government, presenting your agency’s services in context
• Providing them with access to your agency information from the access point of their choice (ie. preferred government portals)
• Increasing usability, customer satisfaction and fulfilment by refining the use of existing technologies.

The benefits to the agency include:

• Providing better web experience and service to clients
• Driving more users to your site, from multiple government portals and aligned government sites
• Providing efficient, open access to government information and services
• Describing Victorian Government information and services consistently
• Clearly positioning similar information and services with other like services, through the use of navigational themes in government search portals
• Establishing an extensible, metadata driven, descriptive platform for Victorian Government information, using plain terminologies not government jargon or structures.

Change control/history

This is Version 3.0 of the AGLS Victoria: Metadata Implementation Manual. This manual provides practical information on how to implement the Office of the Chief Information Officer's Standard: Discoverability. Version 3.0 includes:

• updated scheme information associated with the treatment of languages, language controlled lists and multililngual metadata;
• more examples of common metadata errors that cause the most confusion;
• updated hyperlinks;
• a note about the affect of the change to the status of harvest control lists at a Federal level on the Victorian manual; and
• advice on the presentation of foreign government agency names and employee titles.

References in this manual to the Commonwealth Implementation Manual are to Australian Government Implementation Manual: AGLS Metadata, National Archives Australia, Version 2.0, May 2006.

This manual supports the Discoverability Standard which plays a critical role in ensuring that Government information and services can be found online through Victoria Online and non government search engines and directories. In addition, it also supports the document "Ensuring your Site is Discoverable via Victoria Online".

The AGLS standard continues to evolve as we learn more about the processes of creating, managing and exploiting AGLS metadata. It is intended that any future revisions to the AGLS standard will be backwardly compatible with earlier versions of the standard. In version 3.- the language scheme has changed in line with updates to International standards and is scuedule for further updates in the near future.

Intended Audience

This implementation manual is intended for the use of Victorian Government departmental and agency staff who:

• Create online content
• Are custodians or managers of offline resources and services
• Coordinate web-based agency policy and practice
• Are involved in developing, managing and maintaining Victorian Government web sites.

Further information and support

If you require further information or assistance with the implementation of metadata within your department or agency, please contact:

eServices Unit
Citizen Access and Transformation
Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development
email: agls-queries@egov.vic.gov.au

Availability

• The AGLS Victoria manual is available in pdf format (2348kb). (To view this document you will need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer). You can also convert PDF documents into alternative formats; and
• The AGLS Victoria manual is also available in Microsoft Word format (1040kb) (This document requires the use of Microsoft Word Reader).

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