Optimising metadata to make high-value content more accessible to Google users

Purpose – This paper aims to show how information in digital collections that have been catalogued using high‐quality metadata can be retrieved more easily by users of search engines such as Google.Design/methodology/approach – The research and proposals described arose from an investigation into the observed phenomenon that pages from the Glasgow Digital Library (gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk) were regularly appearing near the top of Google search results shortly after publication, without any deliberate effort to achieve this. The reasons for this phenomenon are now well understood and are described in the second part of the paper. The first part provides context with a review of the impact of Google and a summary of recent initiatives by commercial publishers to make their content more visible to search engines.Findings – The literature research provides firm evidence of a trend amongst publishers to ensure that their online content is indexed by Google, in recognition of its popularity with internet users. Th...

[1]  Marcus A. Banks.  The excitement of Google Scholar, the worry of Google Print , 2005, Biomedical digital libraries.

[2]  Philip Hunter,et al.  Metadata for harvesting: the Open Archives Initiative, and how to find things on the Web , 2004, Electron. Libr..

[3]  Gary Simons,et al.  Extending Dublin Core Metadata to Support the Description and Discovery of Language Resources , 2003, Comput. Humanit..

[4]  Peter Kent,et al.  Search Engine Optimization For Dummies , 2004 .

[5]  Rhian Thomas,et al.  Uptake and use of electronic information services: trends in UK higher education from the JUSTEIS project , 2003, Program.

[6]  Nancy J. Becker.  Google in perspective: understanding and enhancing student search skills , 2003 .

[7]  Susan Macdougall.  Signposts on the Information Superhighway , 2000 .

[8]  Michael Gorman,et al.  Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules , 1967 .

[9]  J. Wallis.  Information‐saturated yet ignorant: information mediation as social empowerment in the knowledge economy , 2003 .

[10]  phil bradley.  Search Engines: The Google Backlash , 2004 .

[11]  Elena Maceviciute.  Review of: Andrews, Judith and Law, Derek. (Eds.), Digital libraries: policy, planning and practice. Aldershot, Hants: Ashgate, 2004 , 2005, Inf. Res..

[12]  Alan Dawson,et al.  Building a digital library in 80 days: the Glasgow experience , 2004 .

[13]  James A. Hendler,et al.  The Semantic Web" in Scientific American , 2001 .

[14]  Clifford A. Lynch,et al.  When documents deceive: Trust and provenance as new factors for information retrieval in a tangled web , 2001, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[15]  Emma McCulloch.  Multiple terminologies: an obstacle to information retrieval , 2004 .

[16]  Charles F. Thomas,et al.  Who Will Create The Metadata For The Internet? , 1998, First Monday.

[17]  Frank Parry,et al.  The Invisible Web: Uncovering Information Sources Search Engines Can’t See , 2002 .

[18]  Dennis Nicholson.  The Intellectual Foundation of Information Organization , 2003 .

[19]  Aacr.  Anglo-American cataloguing rules, second edition , 1986 .

[20]  Massimo Marchiori,et al.  The Limits of Web Metadata, and Beyond , 1998, Comput. Networks.