Comparative Study of Metadata Elements Used in the Website of Central Library of Universities Subordinate to the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology with the Dublin Core Metadata Elements

This research has been carried out with the aim of studying the web sites of central libraries of universities subordinate to the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology usage of metadata elements and its comparison with Dublin Core standard elements. This study was a comparative survey, in which 40 websites of academic library by using Internet Explorer browser. Then the HTML pages of these websites were seen through the Source of View menu, and metadata elements of each websites were extracted and entered in the checklist. Then, with using descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage and mean) analysis of data was discussed. Research findings showed that the reviewed websites did not use any Dublin Core metadata elements, general metadata Markup language used in design of all websites, the amount of metadata elements used in website, Central Library of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad and Iran Science and Industries with 57% in first ranked and Shahid Beheshti University with 49% in second ranked and the International University of Imam Khomeini with 40% was in third ranked. The approach to web designers was determined too that as follows: the content of source in first ranked and attention to physical appearance source in second ranked and also ownership of source in third position.