First published on infolaw, December 2000

infolaw welcomes the proposals by the Community Legal Service for the promotion of a common meta data standard for websites developed by organisations in the legal and advice sectors. Meta data (data about data) is a formal means of describing the content of documents – in this case web pages.

The CLS consultation document (at www.lcd.gov.uk/consult/meta/metafr.htm) does not define ‘Legal and Advice Sectors’. However, the proposals are part of a series of projects to enhance Just Ask! (at www.justask.org.uk), the website of the CLS whose terms of reference are to increase access to justice for ordinary people.

There are three elements to the proposed scheme:

• a meta data scheme, defining what elements will be used for classification
• a content classification scheme, defining a set of allowed terms for the ‘subject’ element
• a thesaurus matching terms which might be used by a typical user to the terms allowed by the content classification scheme

The meta data scheme proposed ‘conforms closely’ to the Dublin Core (DC) standard which defines 16 core elements: Title, Creator, Subject, Description, Publisher, Contributor, Date, Type, Format, Identifier, Source, Language, Relation, Coverage, Rights and References. The CLS proposes using the element Author instead of Creator. Elements may be qualified and DC sets out a number of recommended qualifiers (eg Date.Created). For the DC specification and usage manual see www.purl.org/DC/.

The content classification scheme (which, in accordance with DC, would be explicitly referenced in the meta data) will be commissioned from a suitably qualified legal information professional. The context of the scheme will be ‘members of the public in England and Wales who need to find relevant information across the whole of the Legal and Advice Sectors, which enables them to resolve or make progress towards the resolution of problems related to those sectors’.

Complementing the CLS content classification scheme will be a thesaurus that will help users to search for information who will not necessarily know the ‘official’ terms that have been used.

Nick Holmes of infolaw comments:

The adoption of Dublin Core should be taken as read, as it now has wide acceptance; but the CLS scheme should conform absolutely.

Regarding the content classification scheme, the CLS cannot be expected to work beyond its own terms of reference (and it is not clear whether it is seeking to do so). It is unlikely that it will come up with a one-size-fits-all scheme that will be wholly suitable for and acceptable to those servicing other users, ie the ‘haves’ seeking to buy and sell property and use other legal services, businesses seeking legal services and professionals seeking legal information. However, the acceptance of outside interests, while desirable, is not essential, since all that is required is that the meta data Subject element references a published standard.

Should the CLS scheme not meet their requirements the professions will be free to develop their own schemes. For example the Law Society of England and Wales uses a 52-subject, solicitor-oriented, work-type classification scheme which could be refined and formalised as a published standard.

[Added March 2001: See now Responses to Meta Data Proposals for Legal and Advice Sites]