Metadata
What's related > Best practice for web pages: summary
NEW 2009 To all web editors:
See important new website about the migration of LSE websites into the Content Management System: CMS: migration
Archive of FrontPage 'Metadata' information:
Overview
Metadata is a description of data or information, ie a 'label' to facilitate use and management. The cataloguing information on the first few pages of a book is metadata to assist librarians and booksellers.
On the web, metadata is used to provide information about resources that does not necessarily need to be displayed on the screen. Such information is often used by search engines to help match a user's query with relevant documents.
Information commonly stored as metadata include authorship, publication date, modification date, copyright information, and subject keywords.
Usage
The following META tags are mandatory for LSE web pages:
- <META NAME="DC.Creator" CONTENT=""> where CONTENT is set to the author of the page (which may or may not be the same as the web editor)
- <META NAME="DC.Creator.Email" CONTENT=""> where CONTENT is set to the author's email address
- <META NAME="DC.Rights" CONTENT=""> where CONTENT clarifies intellectual property rights
These are used by the 'Comment on this page' and 'Copyright' links included in the footer of all LSE pages.
The following META tags are optional:
- <META NAME="lse.targetaudience" CONTENT=""> where CONTENT is set to a list of the audiences for which the page was created, each separated by a comma
- <META NAME="lse.pagesource" CONTENT=""> where CONTENT is set to the organisational unit to which the page belongs
The following META tags are mandatory for events pages:
- <META NAME="lse.dateandtime" CONTENT=""> where CONTENT is set to the date and time the event starts using the format YYYYMMDDtHHMM
- <META NAME="lse.location" CONTENT=""> where CONTENT is set to the building or room number where the event is being held
- <META NAME="lse.person" CONTENT=""> where CONTENT is set to a list of people associated with the event, each separated by a comma
At LSE, there is a list (schema) for NAME but not lists (schemes) for CONTENT. This ensures a balance between ensuring that metadata has value, and being too restrictive on the use of that metadata.
Examples
The metadata for the LSE website homepage looks like this:
<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-gb">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 4.0">
<meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document">
<meta name="dc.creator" content="LSE Web Editor">
<meta name="dc.creator.email" content="lsewebsite@lse.ac.uk">
<meta name="lse.pagesource" content="LSE Website">
<title>Welcome to LSE</title>
Metadata is a complex subject, so if you would like any further information, please contact us at webeditors.enquiries@lse.ac.uk.
Background
In HTML, metadata is stored within the HEAD of the document using the META tag:
<META NAME="" CONTENT="">
There can be one or more META tags making up the metadata for a web page with each representing a different piece of information about the page.
Although it is possible to put any text in name and content, doing so would have little value. To ensure consistency across pages, and thereby provide value, the name is selected from an agreed list (called a schema) and content is set accordingly. It is possible to be more prescriptive and have the content set to value from an agreed list (called a scheme). For example, one page could contain the META tag:
<META NAME="DC.Creator" CONTENT="Stephen Emmott">
...whereas another could contain the META tag:
<META NAME="DC.Creator" CONTENT="Ruth Hartnup">
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