[OAI-implementers] OAI and DCMI announce DC-simple Schema Declaration

[Carl Lagoze]

DCMI and OAI are pleased to announce an XML schema for unqualified DC
metadata that facilitates the declaration of modular metadata
components.

The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative and the Open Archives Initiative
have been cooperating on metadata issues for some time.  Unqualified DC
metadata is the default metadata set used in the OAI Protocol for
Metadata Harvesting, intended to promote cross-domain interoperability.
Other, domain-specific sets are encouraged as well, as envisaged in the
modular metadata framework that both communitites have been striving
for.

This schema has been developed for use with the OAI Protocol, and has
been discussed at length in the DC-Architecture working group.  It is
expected that the schema will be of use for other applications as well,
and will be hosted on the DCMI Website and maintained by representatives
of both groups.


This development is an important landmark in the development of
web-based metadata services, reflecting as it does the convergence of
community consensus and the development of enabling infrastructure to
support that consensus.

The schema is available at:
http://dublincore.org/schemas/xmls/simpledc20020312.xsd

This and other schemas will be linked and described for readers at
http://dublincore.org/schemas/

More information on the Open Archives Initiative is available at:
http://www.openarchives.org


Stuart Weibel
Executive Director
Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
OCLC Office of Research

Herbert Van de Sompel
Open Archives Initiative Executive
Digital Library Research & Prototyping
Los Alamos National Laboratory - Research Library

Carl Lagoze
Open Archives Initiative Executive
Computing and Information Science
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853 USA