METS Application Profiles

Morgan Cundiff

Network Development and MARC Standards Office

Library of Congress

What is a METS Application Profile?

“METS Profiles are intended to describe a class of METS documents in sufficient detail to provide both document authors and programmers the guidance they require to create and process METS documents conforming with a particular profile.”

A profile is expressed as an XML document. There is a schema for this purpose.

What is a “class of documents”?

• An open question• At LC we are making a one-to-one

relationship between a document class, or “object type” and a typical library item, e.g. a book, a photograph, a compact disc, etc.

How does one get started with Profiles?

• Download the documentation• Download the XML Schema for Profiles• Download the example Profile document

http://www.loc.gov/mets

How will Profiles be made available?

A registry of METS profiles will be maintained on the METS website. All profiles can be freely downloaded.

How does one register a Profile?

• Send the profile document via email to metsprofile@loc.gov

• The METS Editorial Board will review the profile, perhaps suggest changes, etc

• Upon completion of review it will be added to the METS website registry.

What are the 13 components of a Profile?

1. Unique URI

2. Short Title

3. Abstract

4. Date and time of creation

5. Contact Information

6. Related profiles

What are the 13 components? (cont’d)

7. Extension schemas

8. Rules of description

9. Controlled vocabularies

10. Structural requirements

11. Technical requirements

12. Tools and applications

13. Sample document

What are “structural requirements”?

1. Occurrence of elements (METS)

2. Occurrence of elements (extension schemas)

3. Structure Map model

4. Include metadata with mdRef or mdWrap

5. Embed content file data in METS document with Fcontent or reference using Flocat

6. Associate elements with ID/IDREF attributes

Summary

1. Provide guidance for the creation on METS documents

2. Aid machine processing of METS documents (software tool building)

3. A step towards interoperability of digital libraries

Application Profiles: