Metadata for Web Portal

Abstract

Web portals can be defined as gateways to information and services from multiple sources (Tatnall, 2005). An important aspect of Web portals is the organisation, navigation, labelling, and indexing of their content in order to facilitate searching of information and services (that is, the resources stored as Web portal content). One of the aims of Web portals is to collect and categorize resources (otherwise called content objects), so that users can search, identify, and access the most appropriate resources for their needs. Metadata plays a critical role in such systems. Metadata is defined as structured information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use, or manage a resource. It is often called “data about data” or “information about information” (NISO, 2004; Steinacker, Ghavam, & Steinmetz, 2001). Metadata is used to provide information about resources that do not necessarily need to be displayed on the screen. It can then be used by software such as search engines or content management systems. Examples of information commonly stored as metadata include authorship, publication date, modification date, copyright information, and subject keywords. Metadata can be therefore used in the context of Web portals to describe resources, and thus to facilitate their categorization, storage, search, and retrieval procedures (Duval, Hodgins, Sutton, & Weibel, 2002; Miller, 1996). In this article, we provide an overview of what metadata is, and how it can be used for the description, categorization, and classification of Web portal content. Using the case study of an organic agriculture (OA) Web portal, appropriate metadata for describing OA electronic markets (e-markets) and developing an e-market directory service is presented.