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The Thesaurus for Graphic Materials I: Subject Terms (TGM I) provides a substantial body of terms for subject indexing of pictorial materials, particularly the large general collections of historical images which are found in many libraries, historical societies, archives, and museums.
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The TGN is a structured vocabulary containing around 1,000,000 names and other information about places. The TGN includes all continents and nations of the modern political world, as well as historical places. It includes physical features and administrative entities, such as cities and nations. The emphasis in TGN is on places important for art and architecture.
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Library of Congress Subject Headings, 25th edition (LCSH 25) is the only subject headings list accepted as the world wide standard. LCSH is the most comprehensive list of subject headings in print in the world. It's the one tool no librarian should be without. Provides an alphabetical list of all subject headings, cross-references and subdivisions in verified status in the LC subject authority file. (Official site)
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MeSH is the National Library of Medicine's controlled vocabulary thesaurus. MeSH consists of a set of terms or subject headings that are arranged in both an alphabetic and a hierarchical structure. At the most general level of the hierarchical structure are very broad headings such as "Anatomy," "Mental Disorders," and "Enzymes, Coenzymes, and Enzyme Inhibitors." At more narrow levels are found more specific headings such as "Ankle", "Conduct Disorder," and "Calcineurin." There are more than 19,000 main headings in MeSH. In addition to these headings, there are 103,500 headings called Supplementary Concept Records (formerly Supplementary Chemical Records) within a separate chemical thesaurus. There are also thousands of cross-references that assist in finding the most appropriate MeSH Heading, for example, Vitamin C see Ascorbic Acid.
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RAMEAU is a controlled vocabulary devised to describe the subject of any document.
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CSH is a list of standard subject headings (in English) on Canadian topics, which complements Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) and is compatible with LCSH in its underlying principles.
Canadian Subject Headings (CSH) is an essential tool for providing subject access to information on Canadian topics.
CSH offers in-depth coverage of Canadian topics, including those recently in the news; copious references and scope notes; compatibility with Library of Congress Subject Headings.
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The AAT may be used to describe objects, textual materials, images, architecture and material culture from antiquity to the present. Many of the terms refer to objects of significance in the discussion and analysis of material culture, encompassing the natural and built environments, furnishings and equipment, and artifacts of visual and verbal communication.
The AAT provides not only the terminology to generically name art objects and architecture, but the vocabulary necessary to describe them as well. This supporting terminology includes the materials and techniques relating to their construction and conservation (such as deacidification), their physical attributes (such as shape and color), terminology associated with their production and study (such as the roles of persons), vocabulary indicating their style or period, and concepts relating to their history, theory, criticism, and purpose.
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The name of a group of standards, officially cited as "ISBD" developed by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions to standardize, as much as possible, the descriptive portion of catalog and bibliographical records produced in different countries; prescribes the elements constituting the description, their order, and the punctuation between them.
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AACRII are a set of cataloguing rules used by libraries in most English-speaking countries, and increasingly used throughout the world. Useful to museums in that it contains format standards for the names of people, places, and corporate bodies, along with rules for capitalization, abbreviation, and numerals. Available on line in English only.
Source: Canadian Heritage - Cataloguing standards
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The Library of Congress Classification System (LC System) is used to organize books in many academic and university libraries throughout the United States and world. (...)
The LC System organizes material in libraries according to twenty-one branches of knowledge. The 21 categories (labeled A-Z except I,O,W,X and Y) are further divided by adding one or two additional letters and a set of numbers.
Source: Library of Congress Classification System
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The Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) is the world's foremost multilingual classification scheme for all fields of knowledge, a sophisticated indexing and retrieval tool. It was adapted by Paul Otlet and Nobel Prizewinner Henri La Fontaine from the Decimal Classification of Melvil Dewey, and first published (in French) from 1904 to 1907. Since then, it has been extensively revised and developed, and has become a highly flexible and effective system for organizing bibliographic records for all kinds of information in any medium (it is well suited to multi-media information collections). It is structured in such a way that new developments and new fields of knowledge can be readily incorporated. The code itself is independent of any particular language or script (consisting of arabic numerals and common punctuation marks), and the accompanying class descriptions have appeared in many translated versions. UDC is in worldwide use, and has been published in whole or in part in 23 different languages. The English-language editions are extensively used both in anglophone countries and those where English is co-official or a working language (the British Isles, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, several African countries) and have a significant presence in other cultures as well. (Official site)
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The Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system is a general knowledge organization tool that is continuously revised to keep pace with knowledge. The system was conceived by Melvil Dewey in 1873 and first published in 1876. The DDC is published by Forest Press, a division of OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. OCLC owns all copyright rights in the Dewey Decimal Classification.
The Dewey Decimal Classification is the most widely used classification system in the world. Libraries in more than 135 countries use the DDC to organize and provide access to their collections, and DDC numbers are featured in the national bibliographies of sixty countries. Libraries of every type apply Dewey numbers on a daily basis and share these numbers through a variety of means (including WorldCat, the OCLC Online Union Catalog). Dewey is also used for other purposes, e.g., as a browsing mechanism for resources on the Web.
The DDC has been translated into over thirty languages. Translations of the latest full and abridged editions of the DDC are completed or underway in Arabic, Chinese, French, Greek, Hebrew, Icelandic, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Russian, and Spanish.
Source: Introduction to the Dewey Decimal Classification
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The AGLS Metadata Standard is a set of 19 descriptive elements which government departments and agencies can use to improve the visibility and accessibility of their services and information over the Internet. It has been mandated for use by Commonwealth Government agencies. The National Archives of Australia is the maintenance agency for the AGLS Metadata Standard. (Official site)
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The GILS is a response to the need for users to identify, locate, and access or acquire publicly available Federal information resources, including electronic information resources. Christian (1994) is the authoritative document providing an overview of GILS, its objectives, service requirements, and core requirements. According to Christian (1994), the GILS is an overall service and includes information and technology components as well as policy, regulation, people, etc. GILS is intended to help the public locate and access information.
Source: Application profile for GILS version 2
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This standard will specify the syntax and semantics of Learning Object Metadata, defined as the attributes required to fully/adequately describe a Learning Object. Learning Objects are defined here as any entity, digital or non-digital, which can be used, re-used or referenced during technology supported learning. Examples of technology supported learning include computer-based training systems, interactive learning environments, intelligent computer-aided instruction systems, distance learning systems, and collaborative learning environments. Examples of Learning Objects include multimedia content,instructional content, learning objectives, instructional software and software tools, and persons, organizations, or events referenced during technology supported learning. The Learning Object Metadata standards will focus on the minimal set of attributes needed to allow these Learning Objects to be managed, located, and evaluated. (Official site)
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MCF is a way to represent the content of a web site, in a much more sophisticated manner than can be done using the existing, commonly-used meta tags. For example, those using a MCF-enabled browser can view a 3D "fly-through" map of a site, assuming the proper coding is in place. (...) MCF has provisions that are supposed to make it easier for search engines to index web sites. For example, it could provide a site summary on a single page. The summary could provide URLs and descriptions of every page within a web site, saving the search engines from having to crawl and store all the pages from the site for searching purposes.
Source: The New Meta Tags Are Coming -- Or Are They?, The Search Engine Report, Dec. 4, 1997
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The objectives of the standard are to provide a common set of terminology and definitions for the documentation of digital geospatial data. The standard establishes the names of data elements and compound elements (groups of data elements) to be used for these purposes, the definitions of these compound elements and data elements, and information about the values that are to be provided for the data elements. (Official site)
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The METS schema is a standard for encoding descriptive, administrative, and structural metadata regarding objects within a digital library, expressed using the XML schema language of the World Wide Web Consortium. The standard is maintained in the Network Development and MARC Standards Office of the Library of Congress, and is being developed as an initiative of the Digital Library Federation. (Official site)
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Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a foundation for processing metadata; it provides interoperability between applications that exchange machine-understandable information on the Web. RDF emphasizes facilities to enable automated processing of Web resources. RDF can be used in a variety of application areas; for example: in resource discovery to provide better search engine capabilities, in cataloging for describing the content and content relationships available at a particular Web site, page, or digital library, by intelligent software agents to facilitate knowledge sharing and exchange, in content rating, in describing collections of pages that represent a single logical "document", for describing intellectual property rights of Web pages, and for expressing the privacy preferences of a user as well as the privacy policies of a Web site. RDF with digital signatures will be key to building the "Web of Trust" for electronic commerce, collaboration, and other applications. (Official site)
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The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative is 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 workshops, conferences, standards liaison, and educational efforts to promote widespread acceptance of metadata standards and practices. (Official site)
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The Dublin Core Metadata Element Set is a set of 15 descriptive semantic definitions. It represents a core set of elements likely to be useful across a broad range of vertical industries and disciplines of study.
The Dublin Core Metadata Element Set was created to provide a core set of elements that could be shared across disciplines or within any type of organization needing to organize and classify information. (Official site)
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The EAD Document Type Definition (DTD) is a standard for encoding archival finding aids using the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). The standard is maintained in the Network Development and MARC Standards Office of the Library of Congress (LC) in partnership with the Society of American Archivists. (Official site)
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"The Common Warehouse Metamodel (CWM) is a specification that describes metadata interchange among data warehousing, business intelligence, knowledge management and portal technologies. The OMG Meta-Object Facility (MOF) bridges the gap between dissimilar meta-models by providing a common basis for meta-models. If two different meta-models are both MOF-conformant, then models based on them can reside in the same repository." (Official site)
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Metadata is becoming increasingly important in all types of publishing. Documents containing metadata can greatly increase the utility of managed assets in collaborative production workflows. The eXtensible Metadata Platform (XMP) provides Adobe applications and workflow partners with a common XML framework that standardizes the creation, processing, and interchange of document metadata across publishing workflows.
XMP encompasses the following: framework, schema, XMP packet technology, and the XMP Software Development Kit, which is available as an open-source license. XMP is based on the W3C's open standard for metadata, known as the Resource Description Framework (RDF).
XMP embeds metadata inside application files. Because the metadata is enclosed within the file, documents retain their context when they exit their original system or environment. The embedded metadata can include any XML schema, provided it is described in RDF syntax. Extensible, embedded metadata in application files provides significant potential for repurposing, archiving, and automation in publishing workflows. (Official site)
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The main purpose of XMI is to enable easy interchange of metadata between modeling tools(based on the OMG UML) and metadata repositories (OMG MOF based) in distributed heterogeneous environments. XMI integrates three key industry standards:
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The Meta-Object Facility (MOF) is a CORBA Common Facility for the management of meta-information. The MOF is intended for use in a wide variety of scenarios - from type management to software development, information management and data warehousing - the MOF can be used as a meta-information repository within CORBA distributed systems. (Official site)
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The PICS specification 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. (Official site)
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The Library of Congress' Network Development and MARC Standards Office, in partnership with the NISO Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images Standards Committee and other interested experts, is developing an XML schema for a set of technical data elements required to manage digital image collections. The schema provides a format for interchange and/or storage of the data specified in the NISO Draft Standard Data Dictionary: Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images (Version 1.2). This schema is currently in draft status and is being referred to as "NISO Metadata for Images in XML (NISO MIX)". MIX is expressed using the XML schema language of the World Wide Web Consortium. MIX is maintained for NISO by the Network Development and MARC Standards Office of the Library of Congress with input from users. (Official site)
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Initially launched in 1987, the TEI is an international and interdisciplinary standard that helps libraries, museums, publishers, and individual scholars represent all kinds of literary and linguistic texts for online research and teaching, using an encoding scheme that is maximally expressive and minimally obsolescent. (Official site)
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MPEG is a working group of ISO/IEC in charge of the development of standards for coded representation of digital audio and video. Established in 1988, the group has produced MPEG-1, the standard on which such products as Video CD and MP3 are based, MPEG-2, the standard on which such products as Digital Television set top boxes and DVD are based, MPEG-4, the standard for multimedia for the fixed and mobile web and MPEG-7, the standard for description and search of audio and visual content. Work on the new standard MPEG-21 "Multimedia Framework" has started in June 2000. So far a Technical Report and two standards have been produced and three more parts of the standard are at different stages of development. Several Calls for Proposals have already been issued.
(Official site)
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The BBC has defined a Standard Media Exchange Framework (SMEFTM) to support and enable media asset management ("MAM") as an end-to-end process across its business areas, from commissioning to delivery to the home. The SMEF Data Model (SMEF-DM) 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.
The BBC intends to use the SMEF-DM as a means of integrating key information systems; with an appropriate systems architecture, and harmonising other related systems as appropriate to improve commonality of data. SMEF-DM will also be used to manage data definitions across media applications, and embedded metadata definitions in media formats. (Official site)
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The VRA Core Categories, Version 3.0 consist of a single element set that can be applied as many times as necessary to create records to describe works of visual culture as well as the images that document them. The Data Standards Committee followed the "1:1 principle," developed by the Dublin Core community, i.e., only one object or resource may be described within a single metadata set. How the element sets are linked to form a single record is a local database implementation issue. The order of the categories in the VRA Core 3.0 is arbitrary, and local implementations are encouraged to determine their own field sequence that will appropriately describe their data.
The VRA Core 3.0 is intended as a point of departure-not a completed application. The elements that comprise the Core are designed to facilitate the sharing of information among visual resources collections about works and images. These elements may not be sufficient to fully describe a local collection and additional fields can be added for that purpose. We also recommend the use of qualifiers with certain elements in the VRA Core 3.0 so that the data values contained in the element may be more precisely identified For instance, a “Notes” qualifier to clarify the data may be an appropriate addition to many of the current elements. Furthermore, every element may be repeated as many times as necessary within a given set to describe the work or image. (Official site)
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Categories for the Description of Works of Art is a product of the Art Information Task Force (AITF), which encouraged dialog between art historians, art information professionals, and information providers so that together they could develop guidelines for describing works of art, architecture, groups of objects, and visual and textual surrogates.
Formed in the early 1990s, the task force was made up of representatives from the communities that provide and use art information: art historians, museum curators and registrars, visual resource professionals, art librarians, information managers, and technical specialists. The work of the AITF was funded by the J. Paul Getty Trust, with a two-year matching grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to the College Art Association (CAA).
The Categories describe the content of art databases by articulating a conceptual framework for describing and accessing information about objects and images. They identify vocabulary resources and descriptive practices that will make information residing in diverse systems both more compatible and more accessible. They also provide a framework to which existing art information systems can be mapped and upon which new systems can be developed. (Official site)
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The Library of Congress' Network Development and MARC Standards Office, with interested experts, has developed a schema for a bibliographic element set that may be used for a variety of purposes, and particularly for library applications. As an XML schema, the "Metadata Object Description Schema" (MODS) is intended to be able to carry selected data from existing MARC 21 records as well as to enable the creation of original resource description records. It 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. The standard is maintained by the Network Development and MARC Standards Office of the Library of Congress with input from users.
MODS, version 1.2, is now available for trial use. It will remain stable for approximately six months beginning June 11, 2002, during which time we invite comments as a result of experimentation (using the listserv described below). (official site)
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This page updated : 2003 01 13