Metadata

Metadata refers to data that is not the contents of a document, but information about that document. It describes how, when and by whom the information in a given publication was collected, and how the data is formatted. Metadata is essential for being able to effectively navigateand search large collections of documents, whether online or in an offline database.

Meta Tags

The most common form of metadata in electronic documents is the 'meta' tags in HTML. Meta tags can be used to identify properties of a document (e.g. author, expiration date, keywords) and assign values to those properties. Meta tags also provide search engines with information about how they should classify your page, whether they should ignore it, and so on.

This page contains a simple form that will generate meta tags for your Web page and then mail you the results.

The Dublin Core

The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative is an open forum engaged in the development of interoperable online metadata standards to support a broad range of purposes and business models. DCMI's activities include consensus-driven working groups, global workshops, conferences, standards liaison, and educational efforts to promote widespread acceptance of metadata standards and practices. their site features a page of tools and templates that are very useful for those organizations interested in working with this popular metadata standard.