Creating HTML Meta-tags with the Dublin Core Element Set

Abstract

The breadth and scope of information available online and through intranets are making the standardization and use of metadata to identify records imperative if not mandated. Some measure of searchability is provided by the HTML meta tag meta, but the tag has limited potential for describing complex documents. The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative group has developed metadata standards that support a broad range of purposes and business models, most notably the Dublin Core Element Set. The set is fairly easy to learn, but must be combined with HTML if to provide metadata for referencing by a web crawler or search engine. This paper outlines the steps needed to create HTML metadata using the Dublin Core Element Set, and some of the benefits of doing so.