== back to Section 4: Current standards

4.9 An expanded list -- Metadata Element Sets and Application Profiles

4.9.1 Information Resource Description

• MARC (MAchine-Readable Cataloging)
  http://lcweb.loc.gov/marc/
  MARC provides the mechanism by which computers exchange, use, and interpret bibliographic information, and its data elements make up the foundation of most library catalogs used today. MARC became USMARC in the 1980s and MARC 21 in the late 1990s.
  • MODS (Metadata Object Description Schema)
    http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/
    MODS includes a subset of MARC fields and uses language-based tags rather than numeric ones, in some cases regrouping elements from the MARC 21 bibliographic format. MODS is expressed using the XML schema language of the World Wide Web Consortium.
    
  • MARC XML
    http://www.loc.gov/marcxml
    A framework for working with MARC data in a XML environment.
    
    
• DUBLIN CORE
  http://dublincore.org/
  • Dublin Core Metadata Element Set: http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/
  • DCMI Metadata Terms:
    http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-terms/
    • Including:
      • The Dublin Core Metadata Element Set
      • Other Elements and Element Refinements http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-terms/#H3
      • Encoding Schemes
      • The DCMI Type Vocabulary
  • ISO Standard 15836-2003 (February 2003): http://www.niso.org/international/SC4/n515.pdf
  • NISO Standard Z39.85-2001 (September 2001): http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/Z39-85.pdf
    
    
  • DC-Education Application Profile
    http://www.ischool.washington.edu/sasutton/dcmi/ed/04-05/DC-Education_AP_11-30-04.html
    Clarifies the use of the DC Metadata Element Set in education and training-related applications and projects.
    
    
  • DC-Library Application Profile (DC-Lib)
    http://dublincore.org/documents/library-application-profile/
    A proposed application profile that clarifies the use of the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set in libraries and library-related applications and projects.
    
    
  • DC Government Application Profile
    http://dublincore.org/documents/2001/09/17/gov-application-profile/
    Clarifies the use of Dublin Core in a Government context.
    
    
• GILS (Government Information Locator Service/Global Information Locator Service)
  http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/gils/index.html (application site)
  Metadata Elements http://www.gils.net/elements.html
  
  
• RFC 1807 (Format for Bibliographic Records)
  http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1807.html
  A format for bibliographic records describing technical reports.
  
  
• TEI Headers (Text Encoding Initiative)
  http://www.tei-c.org/
  An international standard for representing various literary and linguistic texts for online research and teaching.
  Projects using TEI
  
  
• W3C PICS (Platform for Internet Content Selection)
  http://www.w3.org/PICS/
  Enables labels (metadata) to be associated with Internet content. It was originally designed to help parents and teachers control what children access on the Internet, but it also facilitates other uses for labels, including code signing and privacy. The PICS platform is one on which other rating services and filtering software have been built.
  

4.9.2 Cultural Objects and Visual Resources

• Categories for the Description of Works of Art (CDWA)
  http://www.getty.edu/research/institute/standards/cdwa/index.html
  A standard for describing works of art, architecture, groups of objects, and visual and textual surrogates.
  • CDWA Lite: XML Schema Content for Contributing Records via the OAI Harvesting Protocol (Version 1.1)
    http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/standards/
    cdwa/cdwalite.html
    An XML schema to describe core records for works of art and material culture based on the CDWA and the CCO.
  • FDA/ADAG Guide to the Description of Architectural Drawings
    http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/standards/fda/
    This Guide includes additional data categories and rules regarding architectural drawings.
    
• Cataloging Cultural Objects (CCO)
  http://www.vraweb.org/ccoweb/cco/index.html
  Cataloging Cultural Objects: A Guide to Describing Cultural Works and Their Images (CCO) is a manual for describing, documenting, and cataloging cultural works and their visual surrogates. This is a fuller, more prescriptive set of cataloging rules for a critical subset of the CDWA subcategories. CCO maps to the CDWA core and VRA Core 4.0 metadata element sets.
  
  
• VRA Core Categories 3.0
  http://www.vraweb.org/projects/vracore3/
  For creating records to describe works of visual culture as well as the images that document them.
• VRA Core Categories version 4.0
  http://www.vraweb.org/projects/vracore4/index.html

 

• NISO Data Dictionary for Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images
  Website: http://www.niso.org/committees/committee_au.html
  
  • http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/Z39_87_trial_use.pdf
    Presents a comprehensive list of technical data elements required to manage digital image collections
    
  • NISO Metadata for Images in XML Schema (MIX)
    http://www.loc.gov/standards/mix/
    An XML schema for a set of technical data elements required to manage digital image collections.
    
    
• OBJECT ID
  Website: http://www.object-id.com/index.html
  Object ID Checklist: http://www.object-id.com/checklist/check_eng.html
  Developed to help to combat art theft by encouraging use of the standard and by bringing together organizations around the world that can encourage its implementation. It is a small subset of the CDWA categories.
  
  
• IPTC Metadata for Adobe's XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform) framework
  (IPTC4XMP) -- "IPTC Core" Schema for XMP
  • Website: http://www.iptc.org/IPTC4XMP/
  • User Guide (pdf)
    IPTC metadata were employed by Adobe Systems Inc. to describe photos already in the early nineties. A subset of the IPTC "Information Interchange Model - IIM" was adopted as the well known "IPTC Headers" for Photoshop, JPEG and TIFF image files which currently describe millions of professional digital photos.
    
    
• CHIN Data Dictionary: Humanities. Canadian Heritage Information Network. http://daryl.chin.gc.ca:8000/BASIS/chindd/user/wwwhe/SF
  The CHIN Data Dictionaries contain a description of database fields for museum collection and archaeological site management and documentation. They can be used by a wide range of museums to help them to identify their institution's information needs and standardize their documentation.
  

4.9.3 Educational-purpose

• Learning Object Metadata (LOM)
  http://ltsc.ieee.org/wg12/index.html (Website)
  IEEE 1484.12.1-2002, 15 July 2002.
  http://ltsc.ieee.org/wg12/files/
  LOM_1484_12_1_v1_Final_Draft.pdf (PDF file)
  Focuses on the minimal set of attributes needed to allow learning objects to be managed, located, and evaluated. Learning Objects are defined here as any entity, digital or non-digital, which can be used, re-used or referenced during technology supported learning.
  

  IMS Meta-data Best Practice Guide for IEEE 1484.12.1-2002 Standard for Learning Object Metadata, Version 1.3
  http://www.imsglobal.org/metadata/

• CanCore
  Website: http://www.cancore.ca/en/
  Guidelines for the Access For All Digital Resource Description
  http://www.cancore.ca/guidelines/drd/
  These guidelines are the product of three years of consultation with implementers across Canada and internationally. The guidelines are synchronized with the IEEE LOM standard, and include best practice recommendations for all LOM elements.
  
  
• GEM Element Set, The Gateway to Educational Materials
  http://64.119.44.148/about/documentation/metadataElements
  GEM is a set of metadata standards used by several Consortium members to organize and improve access to their own educational materials.
  
  
• DC-Ed (Dublin Core Education Working Group) Extensions
  website: http://dublincore.org/groups/education/
  draft proposal: http://dublincore.org/documents/2000/10/05/education-namespace/
  The scope of the Working Group interests includes metadata for the discovery, use, and management of resources applicable within and among many national and cross-sector education communities (e.g., pre-school, K-12, further and higher education, vocational and technical training, and lifelong learning).
  
  
  DC-Education Application Profile webpage: http://projects.ischool.washington.edu/sasutton/dcmi/DC-EdAP-7-18-06.html
  Proposes an application profile that clarifies the use of the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set in education and training-related applications and projects.
  
  
• The Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM)
  http://www.adlnet.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=scormabt
  Defines a Web-based learning "Content Aggregation Model" and "Run-Time Environment" for learning objects. The SCORM is a collection of specifications adapted from multiple sources to provide a comprehensive suite of e-learning capabilities that enable interoperability, accessibility and reusability of Web-based learning content.
  
  
• ETD-MS: an Interoperability Metadata Standard for Electronic Theses and Dissertations.
  http://www.ndltd.org/standards/metadata/current.html
  A standard set of metadata elements based on the Dublin Core, used to describe electronic theses and dissertations.

4.9.4 Archives and Preservation

• EAD (Encoded Archival Description) DTD
  http://lcweb.loc.gov/ead/
  A standard for encoding archival finding aids using Extensible Markup Language (XML).
  
  
• PREMIS (Preservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies)
  http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/pmwg/
  Data Dictionary for Preservation Metadata
  http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/pmwg/premis-final.pdf
  Defines “core” set of preservation metadata elements, with supporting data dictionary, applicable to a broad range of digital preservation activities
  
  
• Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS)
  http://public.ccsds.org/publications/archive/650x0b1.pdf
  A technical recommendation for use in developing a broader consensus on what is required for an archive to provide permanent, or indefinite long-term, preservation of digital information.

ISO Archiving Standards - Overview
website: http://ssdoo.gsfc.nasa.gov/nost/isoas/

• Recordkeeping Metadata Standard for Commonwealth Agencies
  http://www.naa.gov.au/recordkeeping/control/
  rkms/contents.html
  Describes the metadata that the National Archives of Australia recommends should be captured in the recordkeeping systems used by Commonwealth government agencies.
  

4.9.5 E-commerce and Right Management

• The INDECS project
  Website: http://www.indecs.org/
  The <indecs> metadata framework: Principles, model and data dictionary
  http://www.indecs.org/pdf/framework.pdf
  Created to address the need, in the digital environment, to put different creation identifiers and their supporting metadata into a framework where they could operate side by side, especially to support the management of intellectual property rights. The main focus of <indecs> is the use of what is commonly (if imprecisely) called content or intellectual property.
  
  
• ONIX (Online Information Exchange)
  http://www.editeur.org/onix.html
  Built on the <indecs> Framework, developed and maintained by EDItEUR jointly with book industries.
  The ONIX for Books Product Information Message is the international standard for representing and communicating book industry product information in electronic form. It has elements to record a wide range of evaluative and promotional information as well as basic bibliographic and trade data.
  
  
• Publishing Requirements for Industry Standard Metadata (PRISM)
  http://www.prismstandard.org/specifications/
  The specification defines an XML metadata vocabulary for syndicating, aggregating, post-processing, and multi-purposing magazine, news, catalog, book, and mainstream journal content.
  The scope of the PRISM Specification was driven by the needs of publishers to receive, track, and deliver multi-part content. The focus is on additional uses for the content, therefore metadata concerning the content's appearance is outside PRISM's scope. The working group focused on metadata for:
  • General-purpose description of resources as a whole
  • Specification of a resource's relationships to other resources
  • Definition of intellectual property rights and permissions
  • Expressing inline metadata (that is, markup within the resource itself).
    
    
• DOI -- Digital Object Identifier, by the International DOI Foundation
  A system for identifying and exchanging intellectual property in the digital environment. It provides a framework for managing intellectual content, for linking customers with content suppliers, for facilitating electronic commerce, and for enabling automated copyright management for all types of media.

4.9.6 Agents

• FOAF (The Friend of a Friend)
  http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/
  The foaf project homepage: http://www.foaf-project.org/
  The FOAF project is based around the use of machine readable Web homepages for people, groups, companies, etc. The "FOAF vocabulary" provides a collection of basic terms that can be used in these Web pages.
  
  
• RDF-vCARD
  Representing vCard Objects in RDF/XML
  http://www.w3.org/TR/vcard-rdf
  This note specifies a Resource Description Framework (RDF) expression that corresponds to the vCard electronic business card profile defined by RFC 2426 [VCARD].

4.9.7 Geospatial Data

• Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM)
  http://www.fgdc.gov/metadata/csdgm/index_html
  A standard for supporting the collection and processing of geospatial metadata. It is intended to be useable by all levels of government and the private sector.
  • Biological Data Profile of the Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata http://www.fgdc.gov/metadata/geospatial-metadata-standards
    Maintained by the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)
    A user-defined or theme-specific profile of the FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata for the purpose of increasing its utility for documenting biological resources. This standard serves as the metadata content standard for the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII)
    
    
• ISO 19115 Core Metadata Elements
  An International Metadata Standard for Geographic Information
  http://www.iso.org/iso/en/CatalogueDetailPage.CatalogueDetail?
  CSNUMBER=26020&ICS1=35&ICS2=240&ICS3=70
  Defines the schema required for describing geographic information and services. It provides information about the identification, extent,quality, spatial and temporal schema, spatial reference, and distribution of digital geographic data.
  
• "Georeferencing Elements in Metadata Standards" In: Hill, Linda (2006).
  Georeferencing, The Geographic Associations of Information. Chapter 6. 155-184. MIT Press.

4.9.8 Media-Specific

• MPEG-4 and MPEG-7 for Audio and Video (ISO/IEC standards developed by MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group))
  
  • MPEG-4
    (A standard for multimedia of the fixed and mobile web.)
    Overview http://www.chiariglione.org/mpeg/standards/mpeg-4/mpeg-4.htm
    
  • MPEG-7
    (A standard for description and search of audio and visual content.)
    = Multimedia Content Description Interface
    Overview http://www.chiariglione.org/mpeg/standards/mpeg-7/mpeg-7.htm
    
    
• PBCore, the Public Broadcasting Metadata Dictionary
  http://www.utah.edu/cpbmetadata/
  Created by the public broadcasting community in the USA for use by public broadcasters and related communities. The PBCore is built on the foundation of the Dublin Core.
  
  
• Standard Media Exchange Framework (SMEF), BBC
  SMEF Data Model http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/smef/
  Provides a set of definitions for the information required in production, distribution and management of media assets, currently expressed as a data dictionary and set of Entity Relationship Diagrams.
  

4.9.9 Collection Level Description

• EAD (Encoded Archival Description) DTD
  http://lcweb.loc.gov/ead/
  A standard for encoding archival finding aids using Extensible Markup Language (XML).
  
  
• Z39.50 Profile for Access to Digital Collection
  ("Z39.50" refers to the International Standard, ISO 23950: "Information Retrieval (Z39.50): Application Service Definition and Protocol Specification", and to ANSI/NISO Z39.50)
  http://lcweb.loc.gov/z3950/agency/markup/markup.html
  The protocol addresses communication between corresponding information retrieval applications, the client and server (which may reside on different computers).
  

4.9.10 Internet Computing

• CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture)
  Specification: http://www.omg.org/technology/documents/
  corba_spec_catalog.htm
  • Specification of an architecture for middleware technology called an Object Request Broker that provides interoperability among clients and servers distributed over a heterogeneous environment.
  • " Using the standard protocol IIOP, a CORBA-based program from any vendor, on almost any computer, operating system, programming language, and network, can interoperate with a CORBA-based program from the same or another vendor, on almost any other computer, operating system, programming language, and network."
    Source: http://www.omg.org/gettingstarted/corbafaq.htm

4.9.11 Numeric Data

• ICPSR Data Documentation Initiative (DDI)
  http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/DDI/CODEBOOK/index.html
  An international XML-based standard for the content, presentation, transport, and preservation of documentation for datasets in the social and behavioral sciences.
  
  
• Standard for Survey Design and Statistical Methodology Metadata (SDSM), The Bureau of the Census
  http://www.census.gov/srd/www/metadata/
  ASA96TOC.HTML
  Defines the necessary metadata to describe all aspects of survey design, processing, analysis, and data sets.

<== back to Section 4: Current standards