AGLS Metadata Standard
The AGLS Metadata Standard is a set of descriptive properties to improve visibility and availability of online resources.
AGLS is published as Australian Standard AS 5044-2010. The 2010 revision supersedes AS 5044-2002 AGLS Metadata Element Set and is renamed the AGLS Metadata Standard. This revised version takes into account changes introduced by the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) in January 2008. It also makes technical changes to support linked data and Semantic Web projects, recognising that the internet is no longer just a medium for publishing human-readable documents.
This AGLS Metadata Standard provides a set of metadata properties and associated usage guidelines to improve the visibility, manageability and interoperability of online information and services.
Resources
- Validate the mandatory minimum set of metadata for Australian Government using the Australian Government Metadata Validator
- Generate the mandatory minimum set of metadata for Australian Government using the Australian Government Metadata Generator
- AGLS Metadata Standard: Part 1, Reference Description (PDF, 981kB)
- AGLS Metadata Standard: Part 2, Usage Guide (PDF - 637kB)
- AGLS Metadata Standard: Guide to Expressing AGLS metadata in XML v1.0 (PDF, 557kB)
- AGLS Metadata Standard: Guide to Expressing AGLS metadata in RDF v1.0 (PDF, 916kB)
- Validation of AGLS properties in HTML5
Major changes
The major changes in the 2010 version are:- revising terminology, property descriptions and recommended formatting to remain consistent with the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI);
- assigning free standing descriptive labels to metadata terms;
- a clear distinction between Vocabulary Encoding Schemes and Syntax Encoding Schemes;
- including a DCMI property not previously in the AGLS standard (conformsTo);
- including four new DCMI properties (accessRights, dateCopyrighted, rightsHolder and license);
- introducing two new AGLS properties (dateLicensed and protectiveMarking);
- introducing three additional sets of terms (Agent Metadata Terms, Availability Metadata Terms and Administrative Metadata Terms);
- deprecation of one element refinement from the previous standard (DC.coverage.postcode);
- changes to the obligation status of some properties;
- including a new obligation status ‘Recommended’;
- updating references to the most recent versions of Request for Comment (RFC) standards and ISO standards;
- examples in eXtensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML); and
- expanding the AGLS Audience Vocabulary Encoding Scheme.
Some additional terms have been made to vocabulary encoding schemes since the publication of AS 5044-2010 to meet specific user needs. This does not affect conformance with the standard.
Draft encoding guidelines for expressing AGLS metadata in XML and RDF are also available.
Template for validating AGLS in HTML5 is now available.
A minor revision of the AGLS Metadata Standard documentation was released in 2022, primarily to update links and contact details and to remove some outdated content to ensure it continues to meet the needs of Australian Government agencies. We advised Standards Australia of our changes and they will consider any necessary updates to AS 5044-2010 in due course.