1. Eddie Byrne Irish Public Service Metadata Project Co-ordinator
Comhairle, 7th Floor, Hume House, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.
Tel (0)

2. Irish Public Service Metadata Project
The Brief:
Recommend and document a metadata standard
Produce a basic thesaurus
Pilot and test the recommended metadata standard
Produce a metadata manual and training specification
Market the benefits of metadata
Outline the effort required in complying with the standard

3. Irish Public Service Metadata Project - Background
Recommended Guidelines for Public Sector Organisations
Web Publication Report of the Interdepartmental Group, October 1999;
It is recommended that all new documents be described using metadata tags and, in so far as is possible, existing information should also be tagged [extract].
The standard set of metadata elements recommended by the Group is based on a widely accepted standard known as the Dublin (Ohio) Core Metadata element set [extract].

4. In an environment of...
Government website developments
Publishing Processes
Content Management Solutions
Accessibility and Standards
Search Engine

5. Metadata - Process to Date
Research on Standards
Examination of experiences elsewhere
Consultation
Draft Document

6. Decisions
Purpose and Scope
Which Standard?
Qualified or Unqualified?
Mandate
Support Structure
Deployment Issues

7. Purpose and Scope Resource Discovery Records Management Archiving
Public Service
Definition

8. Why Dublin Core?
Simple
Supports minimum requirement
Widespread support
Organisation
Use in interdisciplinary environments

9. Elements and Qualifiers
Use of Qualifiers
recommended
Date
Mandatory Elements
recommended
Title
Creator
Subject
Publisher
Identifier
Type
Date

10. Mandate and Support
Mandatory or Optional?
How to mandate?
Lead Agency

11. Deployment Issues
Tools
Syntax
Search software
Display
Thesaurus
Level of creation
Retrofitting
Responsibility
Quality control
Creation Process

12. Current Metadata Initiatives
Phase One Deployment
Document types
Elements in use
OASIS

13. Irish e-Government Initiatives
Irish Government Action Plan...
Implementing the Information
Society in Ireland: an Action Plan
January 1999
Initiatives by government to
reform the Irish Public Service…
REACH
OASIS
BASIS

14. Irish e-Government Initiatives
REACH is charged with developing the framework for electronic delivery and integration of public services in Ireland
Public Service Broker
One-Stop Shop
OASIS Project - frontline information on public services for use by the general public.
User-focused
Life Events
BASIS Project - serving the business community