| Agent |
A software tool that performs a
function on behalf of an end-user (often with little or no direct
interaction with the user). |
| Agent |
In Dublin Core terms, the
super-property of Creator, Contributor and Publisher. A person or
corporate body. |
| AHDS |
Arts and Humanities Data Service. UK
service funded by JISC to collect, describe, and preserve the
electronic resources which result from research and teaching in the
humanities. |
| Ariadne |
A parallel web and print journal for
librarians and information specialists funded by JISC under
eLib. |
| ASF |
Advanced Search Facility. |
| Attribute/value pair |
The combination of a metadata property
and its value. |
| Broker |
A network service that provides a
single interface to multiple (often remote) network services. |
| Bureau |
A third party serving metadata
descriptions, e.g. a PICS label bureau. |
| Checksum |
A computed value which depends on the
contents of a 'block of data'. |
|
CIMI |
Computer Interchange of Museum
Information. CIMI records are a SGML-based metadata format
developed for museum information. |
| CLD |
Collection Level Description |
| CNI |
Coalition for Networked
Information. |
|
CNRI |
Corporation for National Research
Initiatives. |
|
CORBA |
Common Object Request Broker
Architecture. |
|
CURL |
Consortium of University Research
Libraries. |
| DASL |
DAV Searching and Locating. See also:
WebDAV. |
|
DC |
See: Dublin Core. |
| DCMI |
See: Dublin Core. |
| DC-dot |
A program for creating Dublin Core
metadata which can be pasted into the headers of Web pages. |
| DN |
Distinguished Name. An X.500 or LDAP
object name. |
| DOI |
Digital Object Identifier. |
| DSig |
Digital Signatures Initiative. Work
co-ordinated by W3C to develop a trust mechanism for the Web. Will
be based on RDF. |
| DSTC |
Distributed Systems Technology
Centre. |
| DTD |
Document Type Definition. An
application program defining document types in a SGML context. |
| Dublin Core |
A metadata format defined on the basis
of international consensus which has defined a minimal information
resource description, generally for use in a WWW environment. |
| EAD |
Encoding Archival Description. A
SGML-based metadata format developed for the description of
archives. |
| EDI |
Electronic Data Interchange. The
exchange of structured data messages to enable automated
transactions between application systems. |
| FGDC |
Federal Geographic Data Committee.
Organisation that defined FGDC Content Standards for Digital
Geospatial Metadata. |
|
FRBR |
Functional Requirements for
Bibliographic Records. |
| GCL |
A controlled vocabulary for UK
government categories. |
| GILS |
Government Information Locator
Service. Metadata format created by the US Federal Government in
order to provide a means of locating information generated by
government agencies. |
| Handle System |
A distributed system developed by CNRI
which resolves identifiers into the information necessary to locate
and access resources. |
| Harvest |
A system providing a software
architecture for gathering, indexing and accessing Internet
information. Uses SOIF. |
| Hash Function |
See: Checksum. |
| HTML |
Hypertext Mark-up Language. The
standard language used for creating Web documents. |
| HTTP |
HyperText Transfer Protocol. The
client-server protocol used for the exchange of HTML. See also:
TCP/IP. |
| IAFA templates |
Internet Anonymous FTP Archive
templates. Metadata format designed for Anonymous FTP archives, now
adapted for use in ROADS project. |
| ICE |
Internet Content Exchange. |
| ICPSR |
Inter-university Consortium for
Political and Social Research. Organisation that developed the
ICPSR SGML Codebook Initiative - a structured metadata format to
describe social science data sets. |
| IETF |
Internet Engineering Task Force. |
|
IFLA |
International Federation of Library
Associations and Institutions. |
| IMesh |
An international 'community' of
subject gateway service providers. |
| IMesh-Toolkit |
A JISC/NSF funded project to develop a
distributed architecture and software toolkit for developing
subject gateways. |
| IMS |
Instructional Management System. |
|
INDECS |
Interoperability of Data in E-Commerce
Systems. A European funded project. |
| ISAAC |
The Isaac Network: Information
Seeker's Avenue to Authoritative Content. |
| ISBN |
International Standard Book
Number. |
| ISSN |
International Standard Serial
Number. |
| ISO 8601 |
A date format endorsed by the W3C for
use by Web-applications. |
| LDAP |
Lighweight Directory Access Protocol.
Internet standard for directory services. |
| LOM |
IEEE Learning Object Metadata - a part
of the IMS specification. |
| MARC |
MAchine Readable Cataloguing. A family
of formats based on ISO 2709 for the exchange of bibliographic and
other related information in machine readable form. For example,
USMARC, UKMARC and UNIMARC. |
| MD5 |
A one-way hash function typically used
within cryptography. |
| MeSH |
Medical Subject Headings. |
| Metadata |
Structured data about a resource. |
|
METS |
Metadata Encoding and Transmission
Standard. |
| MODS |
Metadata Object Description
Schema. |
|
NISO |
National Information Standards
Organization. |
| OAI |
Open Archives Initiative |
|
OAI-PMH |
Open Archives Initiative Protocol for
Metadata Harvesting |
| OCLC |
On-line Computer Library Center. |
| PICS |
Platform for Internet Content
Selection. Internet content filtering infrastructure. |
| PII |
Publisher Item Identifier. |
| Portal |
A Web-based gateway to Internet
resources, often with other value-added services such as free email
accounts. |
| PURL |
Persistent Uniform Resource
Locator. |
| Push technology |
New Web technologies based on pushing
information to end user. |
| RDF |
Resource Description Framework. RDF is
currently under development within the W3C and provides a framework
for metadata in different application areas, e.g. resource
discovery, content ratings and intellectual property. |
| RDN |
Resource Discovery Network. |
| RDN |
Relative Distinguished Name. An X.500
or LDAP object name. |
| RDNC |
Resource Discovery Network
Centre. |
| Reggie |
A Java-based metadata editor. |
| ROADS |
Resource Organisation And Discovery in
Subject based services. eLib funded project developing software for
use by Internet subject services. ROADS templates are a metadata
format and are a development of IAFA templates. |
|
RSS |
Rich Site Summary - a metadata format
for syndicating web site headlines. It was created and popularised
by Netscape for their personalised portal site. |
| SBIG |
Subject-Based Information Gateway.
See: Subject Service. |
| SGML (ISO 8879) |
Standard Generalised Mark-up Language.
An international standard for the description of marked-up
electronic text. |
| SHHTP |
HTTP secured using SSL. |
| SICI |
Serial Item and Contribution
Identifier. |
| SiRPAC |
RDF-XML parser developed by W3C. |
| SOIF |
Summary Object Interchange Format. A
metadata format developed for use with the Harvest
architecture. |
| SSI |
Server Side Include. Mechanism for
dynamically generating parts of Web pages. |
| SSL |
Secure Socket Layer. A method for
end-to-end network encryption. |
| stuff |
A neutral term for 'resource' (which
absolves you from any need to define what you are talking
about). |
| Subject Service |
Internet subject services or gateways.
Typically give access to selected Internet resources based on
subject coverage and quality criteria. For example: Social Science
Information Gateway (SOSIG). |
| Unicode |
A standard for international character
encoding. |
| TCN |
See: Transparent Content
Negotiation. |
|
TCP/IP |
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet
Protocol. The Internet transport-level protocols, often used to
refer to the entire collection of Internet protocols. |
| TEI |
Text Encoding Initiative. An attempt
to define the encoding of literary and linguistic texts in
electronic form. TEI headers are a SGML-based metadata format for
the documentation of these electronic texts. |
| TERENA |
Trans-European Research and Education
Networking Association. |
| TF-CHIC |
TERENA Task Force - Cooperative
Heirarchical Indexing Coordination. |
| Transparent Content
Negotiation |
Transparent Content Negotiation.
Mechanism for transparent selection of content type - by format,
language, etc. |
|
UDDI |
Universal Description, Discovery and
Integration |
| URC |
Uniform Resource Characteristics. |
| URI |
Uniform Resource Identifier. The
super-set of URNs, URLs and URCs. |
| URL |
Uniform Resource Locator. The standard
way to give the address of a source of information on the WWW. For
example: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/publications.html |
| URN |
Uniform Resource Name. Persistent
identification for Web resources. |
| Warwick Framework |
An architecture for the exchange of
distinct metadata packages involving the aggregation of metadata
packages into containers. |
| Web robot |
A software robot which trawls the WWW,
generating all-encompassing Web indexes. Also known as Web crawlers
or Web spiders. |
|
WebDAV |
Web Distributed Authoring and
Versioning. An IETF Working Group. |
| Whois++ |
An Internet directory services
protocol. |
| World Wide Web Consortium |
Organisation currently responsible for
the development of Web protocols. |
| WWW |
World Wide Web. |
| W3C |
See: World Wide Web Consortium |
| XML |
Extensible Markup Language. A
lightweight version of SGML designed for use on the Internet. |
| Z39.50 |
A NISO standard for an applications
layer protocol for information retrieval which is specifically
designed to aid retrieval from distributed servers. |
| ZNG |
Z39.50 Next Generation - a proposal to
evolve Z39.50 to a more mainstream protocol based on XML, URI, SOAP
(RPC), and HTTP. |
