Metadata standards

Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI)

This organization had its beginnings in 1995 with an invitational workshop in Dublin, Ohio which brought together a number of stakeholders such as librarians, information specialists, web developers, specific information communities such as education, government, museums etc to develop standards for the description, organization and discovery of networked resources. It is continuing as "an open forum engaged in the development of interoperable online metadata standards that support a broad range of purposes and business models. DCMI's activities include consensus-driven working groups, global conferences and workshops, standards liaison, and educational efforts to promote widespread acceptance of metadata standards and practices." (DCMI website 2005)

Dublin Core standard

DCMI maintains a vocabulary of several metadata terms most notably the fifteen element Dublin Core set. The limitations of the simple data model as represented by the fifteen element Dublin Core set are being addressed by an extended Abstract model for DCMI metadata descriptions.

Key DCMI standards documents available on the DCMI website:

• DCMI Metadata Terms
• DCMI Abstract Model
• Dublin Core Metadata Element Set, Version 1.1
• DCMI Type Vocabulary

Australian standards (based on the Dublin Core)

• AGLS (Australian Government Locator Service)

Application profiles

Application profiles (AP) mix and match metadata terms from one or more metadata formats into a single compound format which meets the unique needs of a particular project or community of practice while retaining interoperability with base schema. It usually does not declare new elements, only "reuses" terms from existing element sets. More information:

• Heery, Rachel and Patel, Manjula (2000) Application profiles: mixing and matching metadata schemas, Ariadne issue 25
• DCMI Usage Board Review of Application Profiles
• Library Application Profile (DCMI-Libraries Working Group) this is an example of an application profile using Dublin Core for library and library related projects.

Educational metadata standards and application profiles

• IEEE-LOM Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Learning Technology Standards Committee (LTSC), Learning Object Metadata
• IMS Learning Resource Meta-data Specification (IMS Global Learning Consortium, Inc)
• SCORM (Shareable Content Object Reference Model)
• DCMI Education Working Group
• EdNA Metadata Standard (Education Network Australia) based on Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (DCMES) and consistent with the Australian Government Locator Service (AGLS)
• Learning Federation Metadata Application Profile (pdf, 1 MB) the Le@rning Federation (TLF) (Curriculum Corporation and education.au limited) an example of an application profile using Dublin Core, IEEE LOM and custom metadata elements.
• CanCore Canada, Learning Resource Metadata Initiative documents, presentations and other resources
• UK Learning Object Metadata Core CETIS (Centre for Educational Technology Interoperability Standards)

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