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GENERAL
NISO (National Information Standards Organization) Standards
NISO, the National Information Standards Organization, a non-profit association accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), identifies, develops, maintains, and publishes technical standards to manage information in our changing and ever-more digital environment. NISO standards apply both traditional and new technologies to the full range of information-related needs, including retrieval, re-purposing, storage, metadata, and preservation.
Standards at the Library of Congress
A collection of standards useful for librarians and archivists.
Text Encoding Initiative (TEI)
The TEI is a consortium which collectively develops and maintains a standard for the representation of texts in digital form. Its chief deliverable is a set of Guidelines which specify encoding methods for machine-readable texts, chiefly in the humanities, social sciences and linguistics.
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
W3C develops technical specifications and guidelines through a process designed to maximize consensus about the content of a technical report, to ensure high technical and editorial quality, and to earn endorsement by W3C and the broader community.
METADATA
Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative is an open organization engaged in the development of interoperable metadata standards that support a broad range of purposes and business models.
Encoded Archival Description (EAD)
The EAD Document Type Definition (DTD) is a standard for encoding archival finding aids using Extensible Markup Language (XML). The standard is maintained in the Network Development and MARC Standards Office of the Library of Congress in partnership with the Society of American Archivists.
Metadata Authority Description Standard (MADS)
MADS is a MARC21-compatible XML format for the type of data carried in records in the MARC Authorities format (people, organizations, events, topics, genres, etc.). MADS serves as a companion to MODS to provide metadata about the authoritative entities used in MODS descriptions.
Metadata Encoding & Transmission Standard (METS)
The METS schema is a standard for encoding descriptive, administrative, and structural metadata regarding objects within a digital library, expressed using the XML schema language of the W3C.
Metadata for Digital Content (MDC)
The MDC group is documenting metadata profiles for different digital library projects/initiatives which draw from the master list to provide consistency for metadata usage throughout the institution, to support the metadata use cases, and to point to areas where metadata remediation might be beneficial.
Metadata Object Description Standard (MODS)
MODS is a schema for a bibliographic element set that may be used for a variety of purposes, and particularly for library applications. As an XML schema it is intended to be able to carry selected data from existing MARC 21 records as well as to enable the creation of original resource description records. The standard is maintained by the Network Development and MARC Standards Office of the Library of Congress with input from users.
Open Archives Initiative – Protocol for Metadata Harvesting and Object Reuse and Exchange
OAI develops and promotes interoperability standards that aim to facilitate the efficient dissemination of content.
Preservation Metadata (PREMIS)
PREMIS data dictionary was developed with the goal of creating an implementable set of core preservation metadata elements, with broad applicability withing the digital preservation community.