METADATA, PICS AND QUALITY

摘要

A recent Ariadne article on review service resource evaluation by Anagnostelis et al. (1997) ended with a reference to the Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) and added that while PICS controls neither the publication nor the distribution of information, it offers 'individuals and organisations the option of filtering out or filtering in selected views of networked information.' There then followed a reference to the Centre for Information Quality Management (CIQM) and its proposal to use PICS filtering in order to allow users to set constraints on the minimum quality of resources retrieved (Armstrong 1997). This article seeks to amplify this basic idea. CIQM was originally set up by The Library Association and the UK Online User Group to act as a clearing house to which database users could report problems relating to the quality of any aspect of a database being used (search software, data, indexing, documentation, training, for example). CIQM undertakes to forward the problem to the appropriate body (information provider, online host, CD-ROM publisher or Internet resource provider) and route the response back to the user. The service is free to users.