Standards Framework Report #1

Executive Summary

The Standards Framework Report is an important element of the knowledge base that the SCHEMAS project aims to develop for metadata schema implementers. The main focus is on metadata standardisation initiatives that are web-oriented. This report is the first out of four Standard Framework Reports. The fourth and final version will be released at the end of 2001. In the meantime we will extend the number of initiatives incorporated, and monitor the developments and trends in the area of web-oriented metadata standardisation.

Consulting the MMI Framework of CEN/ISSS as well as other sources has resulted in a list of 89 initiatives. We have sent a questionnaire with questions relevant for schema implementers to the contact persons of 40 of them. A total of 10 contact persons responded. These 10, completed by another 11 initiatives that were analysed through desk research, are the subject of this first Standards Framework Report. Together the 21 initiatives cover 89 standards. Although this population is quiet small compared to the large number of initiatives taking place in this area, we do believe that this report provides a good impression of what is currently happening.

The majority of the 21 initiatives are developing record formats, both domain specific and general. The domains in which most of the initiatives are active are cultural heritage and publishing & rights management. The cultural heritage sector includes libraries, which is where metadata was originally very much used. The general, or none-domain specific, initiatives are also very well represented.

The Dublin Core plays a rather central role in the developments of metadata standardisation. An important number of the 21 initiatives considered are liaised to the Dublin Core. To harmonise the standards and to foster interoperability it is essential that co-operation between the initiatives is further strengthened and expanded.

RDF and web-technologies like XML are relatively new and do not have yet many liaisons with the initiatives covered by this report. It is however expected that RDF and XML will play an important role in facilitating interoperability in the future. Some initiatives already mention that in the near future they will consider using XML.

Maintained by: UK Office for Library and Information Networking (UKOLN)
Last updated: 07 August 2001

Standards Framework Report #1

Table of Contents

Section 1 - Introduction

Section 2 - Methodology

Section 3 - Scope

Section 4 - Mapping the initiatives

Section 5 - Synthesis

Section 6 - Trends

Section 7 - Overall Conclusions