Here is my latest revision of the One Page Description.
I have tried to finess the problem of element labels by proposing a
single term formal label that is generally, but not always, the same as
the element name. Several people have pointed out that it is important
to have single terms for deployment purposes.
I have also edited the text somewhat to accommodate criticisms sent to
or to the list.
As always, your criticisms and emendations are welcome.
------------------------ DRAFT ------------------------------
Dublin Core Metadata Element Set: Reference Description
The following comprises the reference definition of the Dublin Core
Metadata Element set as of December, 1996. The elements or their names
are not expected to change substantively from this list, though the
application of some of them are currently experimental and subject to
interpretation. Further, it is expected that practice will evolve to
include sub-elements for certain of the elements.
Note that elements have a descriptive name intended to convey a common
semantic understanding of the data a searcher would expect to be
captured in the element. In addition, a single-word label is specified
to make syntactic specification of elements simpler.
Element Descriptions
1 Title Label: TITLE
The name given to the resource by the creator or publisher.
2 Creator Label: CREATOR
The person(s) or organization(s) primarily responsible for the
intellectual content of the resource. For example, authors in the
case of written documents, artists, photographers, or illustrators
in the case of visual resources.
3 Description Label: DESCRIPTION
The topic of the resource, or keywords that describe the subject or
content of the resource, whether text-based or visual.
4 Publisher Label: PUBLISHER
The entity responsible for making the resource available in its
present form, such as a publisher, a
university department, or a corporate entity. The intent of
specifying this field is to identify the entity that provides the
access.
5 Other Contributors Label: CONTRIBUTORS
Person(s) or organization(s) in addition to those specified in the
CREATOR element who have made significant intellectual
contributions to the resource but whose contribution is secondary
to the individuals or entities specifed in the CREATOR element
(for example, editors, transcribers, illustrators, and
convenors).
6 Date Label: DATE
The date the resource was made available in its present form. The
recommended best practice is an 8 digit number in the form
YYYYMMDD as defined by ANSI X3.30-1985. In this scheme, the date
element for the day this is written would be 19961203, or December
3, 1996. Many other schema are possible, but if used, they should
be identified in an unambiguous manner.
[does the group wish to specify RFC 822 dates here as well, or instead of?]
7 Resource Type Label: TYPE
The category of the resource, such as home page, novel, poem, working
paper, technical report, essay, dictionary. It is expected that
RESOURCE TYPE will be chosen from an enumerated list of types. A
preliminary set of such types can be found at the following URL:
http://www.roads.lut.ac.uk/Metadata/DC-ObjectTypes.html
8 Format Label: FORMAT
The data representation of the resource, such as text/html, ASCII,
Postscript file, executable application, or JPEG image. The
intent of specifying this element is to provide information
necessary to allow people or machines to make decisions about the
usability of the encoded data (what hardware and software might be
required to display or execute it, for example). As with RESOURCE TYPE,
FORMAT will be assigned from enumerated lists such as registered
Internet Media Types (MIME types).
9 Resource Identifier Label: IDENTIFIER
String or number used to uniquely identify the resource. Examples
for networked resources include URLs and URNs (when implemented). For
non-networked resources, one might have an International Standard
Book Number (ISBN) or other formal name.
10 Source Label: SOURCE
The work, either print or electronic, from which this resource is
derived, if applicable. For example, an html encoding of a
Shakespearean sonnet might identify the paper version of the
sonnet from which the electronic version was transcribed.
11 Language Label: LANGUAGE
Language of the intellectual content of the resource. The default
expression of natural languages is according to the ISO 639 two
letter language codes.
See:
http://www.stonehand.com/unicode/standard/iso639.html.
12 Relation Label: RELATION
Relationship to other resources. The intent of specifying this
element is to provide a means to express relationships among
resources that have formal relationships to others, but exist as
discrete resources themselves. For example, images in a
document, chapters in a book, or items in a collection. A formal
specification of RELATION is currently under development. Users
and developers should understand that use of this element should
be currently considered experimental.
13 Coverage Label: COVERAGE
The spatial locations and temporal durations characteristic of the
resource. Formal specification of COVERAGE is currently under
development. Users and developers should understand that use of
this element should be currently considered experimental.
14 RIGHTS MANAGEMENT Label: RIGHTS
The content of this element is intended to be a link (a URL or
other suitable URI as appropriate) to a copyright notice, a
rights-management statement, or perhaps a server that would
provide such information in a dynamic way. The intent of
specifying this field is to allow providers a means to associate
terms and conditions or copyright statements with a resource or
collection of resources. No assumptions should be made by users
if such a field is empty or not present.
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