Module 3 - Dublin Core

Dublin Core (DC) is a metadata standard developed out of beliefs that standards such as AACR2 provided inadequate guidance for cataloguing digital resources.

Digital information poses problems which traditional standards for organising information could not cope with. For example, no physical object to examine as they are often mounted on servers, copyright ownership and intellectual property.

DC standards supplements existing methods for searching and indexing web-based metadata. The DC Metadata Element Set consists of 15 elements that can be used across disciplines or organisations needing to organise and classify information. Web pages are  one of the most common types of resources to use DC descriptors.

1. Title
2. Creator - maker of the content of the resource (person, organisation, service)
3. Subject - topic of the content of the resource (keywords, key phrases or classification codes that describe a topic of the resource. Use a value from a controlled vocabulary or formal classification scheme).
4. Description - account of the content (abstract, contents table, ref to a graphic rep of content or free-text account of the content).
5. Publisher - person, organisation or service responsible for making the resource available.
6. Contributor - person, organisation or service responsible for making contributions to the resource.
7. Date 
8. Type - nature or genre of the content (select a value from a controlled vocabulary such as describing general categories, functions, genres or aggregation levels for content).
9. Format - physical or digital manifestation of the resource (media type, dimension of the resource, size and duration, use a value from a controlled vocabulary).
10. Identifier -  unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context. (Identify a string or number confirming to a formal identification system, URI, URL, DOI, ISBN.
11. Source - reference to a resource from which the present resource is derived (reference the resource by means of a string or number conforming to a formal identification system).
12. Language -
13. Relation - reference to a related resource (reference the resource by means of a string or number confirming to a formal identification system).
14. Coverage - extent or scope of the content of the resource (spatial location - place name), temporal period (period label, date or date range), jurisdiction. Select a value from a controlled vocabulary.
15. Rights - covers intellectual property rights, copyright. 

Examples of DC metadata applied to informaiton reosurces can be found at Dublin Core and the Cataloguing Rules