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Introduction to Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standards (METS)

  1. Format: Seminars

The purpose of the course is to provide participants with a good level of understanding of the structure of a METS document.

METS is a generalized metadata framework, developed to encode the structural metadata for objects within a digital library and related descriptive and administrative metadata. Launched by the Digital Library Federation, the METS initiative seeks to provide a single, standard mechanism for encoding all forms of metadata for digital library objects.

METS will simplify both the exchange of objects between repositories and the development of software tools for search and display of those objects. Additionally, METS encoding will provide a coherent means for archiving digital objects and their metadata.

The METS initiative has two major components, a technical one aimed at developing a standard encoding format for metadata, and an organizational one aimed at developing mechanisms for maintenance and further development of the format.

The course will cover a bit of the history of METS, before going deeper into the structural components that make up a METS document, as well as looking at real life samples where METS have been effectively employed. We will also experiment with a few scenarios for a hands-on experience in coding a METS document.

Course Overview 

  1. What is METS
  2. METS History
  3. METS overview
    1. Identifying content and expressing its structure
    2. Linking Descriptive metadata with digital content
    3. Linking Administrative metadata with digital content
    4. Coordinating dissemination behaviours with digital content
    5. Wrapping Binary content
    6. Wrapping XML content
    7. Uses of METS
  4. Overview of Schemas and sections
    1. A closer look at METS first level elements
  5. Using METS
    1. Profiles
    2. Profile Registration
    3. Validation
    4. Handling Redundancy
  6. Software tools for METS and MODS
  7. Live case studies of METS application
  8. NLB’s use of METS
  9. Hands-on tutorial (Optional and if time permits)

NLBA supports The Library Association of Singapore (LAS) Professional Development Scheme (PDS) and the PDS points apply.