What are the typical components of a GILS implementation?
The base of a GILS implementation is information content. To help people find such information, there must be some selection by which information content is included and excluded, as well as some process to characterize each information resource. (For a discussion of “search portals”, see .) GILS itself puts no constraints on the content selection process. However, by using GILS it is possible to expose information content to a global and long-term audience. It is a good idea to briefly document the selection process in a “collections policy”, because many potential users lack the context to understand how and why the information content was selected. In many cases, the process of characterizing a group of information resources has been done at least partially and there already exists some kind of a resource inventory. Or, characterizing might be accomplished with automated tools such as Web crawlers. In other cases, it may be appropriate to employ trained catalogers or
