Site Owner responsibilities
Owners of official UWA websites are responsible for ensuring:
- all official webpages are appraised according to criteria in the University's Record Keeping Plan
- published modifications to webpages and metadata are captured in a record management system
Metadata describes the characteristics of a resource. It can be defined simply as data about data - information describing the content of a resource and its intellectual property rights.
The application of metadata to web services improves visibility and accessibility.
To comply with the State Records Act 2000 (WA), every UWA web page must provide metadata. Images and files such as Microsoft Word documents or PDF files do not require metadata.
Metadata in MySource Matrix
The metadata set that is used in MySource Matrix Oldcore and Newcore is a shortened version of the Dublin Core Metadata schema with some additional fields. The majority of the fields are filled automatically.
However, Web authors are required to manually complete three fields:
- Subject - a series of relevant keywords separated by commas to describe the content of the page. For example: 'international students, undergraduate, apply, application process, options'.
- Description - a short sentence about the information on the page. For example: 'Information on the two enrolment options available to international students when applying for an undergraduate course at UWA.'
- Audience - a series of check-boxes of target audience types to flag content as being intended for certain groups of people.
A page in MySourceMatrix cannot be made live if any of these three metadata fields are empty.
Metadata standards for 'Mysource Matrix Rebrand core' is under development as at January 2017.
Other C.M.S.
Metadata standards for other C.M.S. and C.S.S. sets are under development as at January 2017.
Web accessibility and metadata
I.M.S. is working on an AccessForAll meta-data specification that is intended to make possible the identification of website resources that match a users stated preferences or needs. In theory this would enable features inbuilt in both the web content and the users 'agent' or assistive technology additions to become immediately available with fewer specific customisations needing to be actioned. By example a custom high contrast C.S.S. and browser enabled font magnification may be applied to a site, as it is loaded, to assist a low vision user.
This builds on work by the Dublin Core metadata initiative. IMS has also developed a set of Guidelines for Developing Accessible Learning Applications.
University information
CRICOS Code: 00126G
