FAQ Number 6

What image metadata standards are there?

There are, in fact, quite a few relevant standards. Firstly item-level descriptions can be based on the Dublin Core and in line with developing e-government and UfI metadata standards. In a Dublin Core context, the specifics of using DCMES for images was discussed at DC-3 - the Image Metadata Workshop held in Dublin, Ohio in September 1996. This workshop resulted in the addition of two new elements to the original thirteen and made some changes to element descriptions.

There is some useful information on DC and other image metadata formats in section 4 of the VADS/TASI guide to creating digital resources in the AHDS Guides to Good Practice series. This paper mentions standards like the CIMI DTD, MARC, the CIDOC standards, etc. as well as more specialised standards like the Visual Resources Association (VRA) Core Record.

There is information on more specialised administrative and structural metadata in the Making of America II project's final report.

A shorter list of elements with a primary focus on preservation is available from the RLG Working Group site.

There may be some useful background information in the Metadata for images conference paper by Michael Day.

Further Information

• Creating Digital Resources for the Visual Arts: Standards and Good Practice, Catherine Grout, Phill Purdy, Janine Rymer (VADS) and Karla Youngs, Jane Williams, Alan Lock, Dan Brickley, Oliver Moss (TASI), http://vads.ahds.ac.uk/guides/creating_guide/contents.html
• The Making of America II Testbed Project: a digital library service model, Bernard J. Hurley, John Price-Wilkin, Merrilee Proffitt and Howard Besser, Washington, D.C.: Council on Library and Information Resources, 1999, http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub87abst.html
• RLG Working Group on Preservation Issues of Metadata, Final report, Mountain View, Calif.: Research Libraries Group, 1998, http://www.rlg.org/preserv/presmeta.html
• Metadata for images: merging practice and standards, UKOLN, http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/presentations/cir99/paper.html
• CIMI Guide to Good Practice, CIMI, http://www.cimi.org/public_docs/meta_bestprac_v1_1_210400.pdf
• Metadata Glossary, UKOLN, http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/glossary/
• Evaluation of Resource Discovery Metadata for Sound Resources, Celia Duffy, Performing Arts Data Service, http://ahds.ac.uk/public/metadata/disc_04.html#pads2