To simplify the process of collecting metadata, an on-line questionnaire has been developed that permits data custodians to submit their own metadata details electronically to the WALIS Interragator database. Metadata is simply a record of information about a dataset, such as a library catalogue. Importantly, although it has been designed according to the ANZLIC metadata guidelines, the questionnaire has been fashioned as a simple interface with logical field descriptions in a user-friendly format. Thus, it will allow custodians from a variety of natural resource fields and varying expertise to provide quality information about their datasets, without necessarily having an extensive background in the management and provision of metadata.Data custodians are simply required to enter the site and then follow the prompts provided in the questionnaire to create their own metadata file for each dataset or monitoring program. A metadata file will then automatically be created in the XML programming language, and entered into the WALIS Interragator database. An in-built checking system will ensure that the metadata file is ANZLIC compliant prior to it being available to view on-line.
