An assessment of the effectiveness of Metadata as a tool for electronic resource discovery

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Last Modified
  • February 28, 2019
Creator
  • Stephenson, Shauna
    • Affiliation: School of Information and Library Science
Abstract
  • This study assesses the effectiveness of the United States Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) metadata system. Since information seeking over the Internet has become a complex and sometimes arduous task, many organizations are looking toward the use of metadata to enhance the discovery of electronic resources. Metadata are data elements, which are used to describe electronic resources to facilitate their later discovery over the Internet. Although there has been great interest among information professionals and academics about metadata, limited focus has been placed on its actual effectiveness. Twenty-four real reference questions for known items were reformulated into search queries which were run in the EPA's Public Access Website and Web Inventory (metadata) databases. Eight out of the 24 queries retrieved responsive metadata records. The results indicate the need for certain improvements to the system, including specificity in keyword assignment and more consistent generation of metadata by data owners.
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Rights statement
  • In Copyright
Advisor
  • Saye, Jerry D.
Degree granting institution
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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Extent
  • 72 p.
Access right
  • Open access
Date uploaded
  • December 10, 2010

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