Global Information Locator Service (GILS) is an open standard for searching basic information descriptions. As part of how an organization manages information content, these "locator records" give users inside and outside the organization a simple way to find information. Such descriptions may be inserted into Web documents with tools like TagGen, generated from databases with tools like MetaStar and Microsoft Access; or edited by catalogers and just stored as documents. - [1]

The minimal set of attributes a GILS server must support:

Title
Local Control Number
Originator
Date of Last Modification
Record Source
Distributor Name
Subject Terms Controlled
Subject Terms Uncontrolled
Any
Anywhere

GILS servers may optionally support attributes to enable a spatial search:

West Bounding Coordinate
East Bounding Coordinate
North Bounding Coordinate
South Bounding Coordinate

Many more attributes are listed by the GILS Application Profile (Version 2) [2]

Note: the GILS Application Profile refers to Government Information Locator Service, but the GILS homepage is titled Global Information Locator Service.

Global Information Locator Service

See also: