Metadata Standards

Metadata Standards Updates (2020s) & Resources

New & Notable developments

• ADMS (Asset Description Metadata Schema) Vocabulary (ADMS 2.0), 2023-06-21
  • First Webinar on ADMS event, 2023-04-25, with Slides || Meeting minutes || Recording
• Data Catalog Vocabulary (DCAT) - Version 3, W3C Working Draft- W3C Editor, 2024-01
• Data Privacy Vocabulary (DPV) version 1.0 Final Community Group Report 05 December 2022
• Data Documentation Initiative (DDI), an international standard for describing the data produced by surveys and other observational methods in the social, behavioral, economic, and health sciences.
  • "Introduction to the DDI Metadata Standard" [DCMI Webinar, 2021-04-21]
• EPUB 3.3 W3C Recommendation 25 May 2023
• MPEG Standards - Exploration, a suite of exploration activities likely to become standards or parts of standards
• ISO: Standards by ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42 Artificial intelligence [a list of standards/or projects]
• NetCDF Climate and Forecast (CF) Metadata Convention Version 1.9, 2021-09-10
• NISO Z39.105-2023, Content Profile/Linked Document, 2023-12-12
• W3C Accessibility Standards Overview || All Standards and Drafts Updated 2022-06-29
• W3C Strings on the Web: Language and Direction Metadata, W3C Group Draft Note 20 July 2023
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, W3C Recommendation, 2023-10-05

Current standards

1 Metadata for general purposes

• Dublin Core
  • Specifications
    • DCMI Metadata Terms, updated 2020-01
    • LRMI Terms (RDF) 2020-11-12, Learning Resource Metadata (LRMI)
    • DC Tabular Application Profiles (DC TAP) draft specification, 2021-04
  • "DCMI Today" [video, DCMI-2021]
    
• Schema.org
  • Schemas, current version
  • Releases - summary
• BIBFRAME
  • BIBFRAME 2.x Vocabulary || BIBFRAME 2 Category View
  • BIBFRAME Frequently Asked Questions
  • "Bibframe Implementation" [panel, DCMI-2021]
• MODS
  • MODS 3.8 (April 22nd, 2022)
• Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS)
  • Version 1.12.1, 2019-10.
• IFLA Standards - Linked open data versions
  • The ISBD (International Standard Bibliographic Description) Vocabularies
  • The LRM (Library Reference Model) Vocabularies
  • The UNIMARC Vocabularies
  • MulDiCat (Multilingual Dictionary of Cataloguing Terms and Concepts)

2 Metadata for Cultural Objects and Visual Resources

• CDWA (Categories for the Description of Works of Art)
  • CDWA, revised 2022
  • CDWA Lite 1.1, revised 2019
  • Crosswalk of CDWA with other Standards, Revised 2022
    
• LIDO (Lightweight Information Describing Objects)
  • LIDO 1.1, released 2021-12. Prepared for CIDOC LIDO Working Group by LIDO-DE Working Group.
• Linked Art Data Model, a profile of CIDOC-CRM.
  • The model
  • The API
• VRA Core
  • VRA Core 4.0
    • VRA Core 4.0 Chinese Translations [anounced 2022-08-23]
    • Available for downloading from https://www.loc.gov/standards/vracore/schemas.html
      • Chinese - Simplified (last updated 08/15/2022)
      • Chinese - Traditional (last updated 08/15/2022)
  • VRA Core 5.0 (in development)
    • "Presenting VRA Core 5: A Standard with Accessibility Baked In, Not Bolted On…and the Tools to Use It" [article, 2022-01]
• Object ID
  • Currently Object ID is available in Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish and Ukrainian.

3 Metadata for Research Data

• Data Catalog Vocabulary (DCAT)
  • Data Catalog Vocabulary (DCAT) - Version 2, W3C Recommendation 04 February 2020
    • "Introduction to the W3C Data Catalog Ontology (DCAT)" [DCMI Webinar, 2020-11-12]
  • Data Catalog Vocabulary (DCAT) - Version 3, W3C Working Draft- W3C Editor, 2023-03-07
• Darwin Core
  • Darwin Core Standards (comprised of 5 vocabularies and 11 documents)
  • Darwin Core quick reference guide, 2021
  • Simple Darwin Core, 2021-07
• Generic Earth Observation Metadata Standard (GEOMS)
  • GEOMS v1.0, 2021-12
• DataCite Metadata Schema
  • DataCite Metadata Schema v4.4, 2021-03

4 Metadata for Archives, Preservation, Provenance

• Encoded Archival Description (EAD)
  • EAD3 1.1.1, 2019-12
  • EAC-CPF Encoded Archival Context—Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families, Draft Schema Version 2.0 (2021-03)
• PREMIS (for Preservation Metadata)
  • PREMIS 3 Ontology, 2018-10
    • "Understanding PREMIS: An Overview of the PREMIS Data Dictionary for Preservation Metadata" 2021-07. (Czech, English, German, Italian, and Portuguese)
• PROV (for Provenance)
  • PROV Family of Documents, W3C (12 recommendations and notes)
  • PROV-DC (Note): a mapping between PROV-O and Dublin Core Terms
• ArchiveGrid, supporting EAD 2002, EAD 3, MARC, PDF, and HTML
  • Related to the IMLS-funded Building a National Finding Aid Network (NAFAN) project (2020-09 to 2023-02)

5 Metadata for Publishing and Press Communications

• IPTC Metadata Standards Website (multiple standards)
  • IPTC Photo Metadata Standard 2021.1, including:
    • IPTC Core Metadata Schema 1.3
    • IPTC Extension Metadata Schema 1.6
  • IPTC’s rNews standard - NewsML-G2 (including EventsML-G2 and SportsML-G2) 2.30, released 2021-11 Guidelines 
    

• PBCore
  • Elements online | PBCore 2.1 Data model visualization | Recorded PBCore webinar series, 2021-09 & 2021-10
    
  • EPUB
    • EPUB Accessibility Techniques 1.1 W3C Group Note, 13 September 2022.
      • 3. Discovery metadata techniques
        

6 Standardized schemes

• Language Metadata Table standard (LMT).
  • LMT v4.2, Dec. 30, 2022. - Includes 280 language codes and display values – with another 50+ being researched.

7 Guidelines

• NISO's Recommended Practice for Video and Audio Metadata Now Available For Public Comment, June 21 - Aug. 25, 2022
  • Recommended Practice for Video and Audio Metadata