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Label |
DC.Description |
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Definition |
An account of the content of a resource |
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Purpose |
A description can facilitate the searcher in assessing the appropriateness or otherwise of a document. It can also prove a useful source of indexable terms. |
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Obligation |
Recommended |
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Qualifier |
--------- |
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Encoding Scheme |
----------- |
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Examples |
<meta name="DC.Description" content="Information on how to contact the Department of Health and Children customer call-in centre"> <meta name="DC.Description" content="Guidelines for employers on the management of workplace health and safety, the preparation of safety statements, and the carrying out of risk assessments"> |
A description may include but is not limited to: an abstract, table of contents or a free-text account (summary) of the content. A description may also be used to indicate the intended audience or purpose of a resource, if appropriate.
Descriptive information may be taken from the item itself. If a description cannot be found either in the introductory or front matter, or the first few paragraphs, it needs to be created following an analysis of the content. A description ought to be informative of the content of the document. Normally, a description should be limited to a few brief sentences.
The DC.Description element may not be required where the title included in the DC.Title element is adjudged descriptive of the content of the resource. In all other cases, best practice is to include a description so as to facilitate the searcher in assessing a document for relevance.