Best Practices/Standards/Technical Details

Overview
Best Practices
Standards
Technical Details

Overview
METS stands for Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard, and provides an XML schema-based specification for encoding "hub" documents for materials whose content is digital. A "hub" document draws together potentially dispersed but related files and data. METS uses XML to provide a vocabulary and syntax for identifying the digital components that together comprise a digital object, for specifying the location of these components, and for expressing their structural relationships. The digital components comprising a digital object could include the content files, the descriptive metadata, and the administrative metadata. METS can be used for the transfer (SIP in OAIS terms), dissemination (DIP in OAIS terms) and/or archiving (AIP in OAIS terms) of digital objects. The UCB Library will ultimately use it for all three purposes.

Best Practices
The UC Berkeley Library will contribute to and observe the best practice guidelines and submission profiles developed by the Online Archive of California. Documentation is under development at: www.cdlib.org/inside/diglib/guidelines/

Standards
METS. Standard for encoding digital objects as a whole. See: www.loc.gov/standards/mets

Descriptive Metadata. The UCB Library will express descriptive metadata in the context of its METS objects using MODS, a descriptive metadata standard developed by the Library of Congress. See: www.loc.gov/standards/mods

Administrative Metadata. The UCB Library will use the following standards to encode administrative metadata in the context of its METS objects:
1) Technical Metadata: MIX
Based on the NISO Data Dictionary for images.
See: www.loc.gov/standards/mix
2) Text Technical Metadata: textmd
A technical metadata schema for text developed by Jerome McDonough.
See: dlib.nyu.edu/METS/textmd.xsd
3) Rights: Not yet determined.

Technical Details
Documentation about the overall architecture of the digital library system the UCB Library is developing around METS is available at: sunsite.berkeley.edu/~rbeaubie/metsucb/METSatUCB.htm