DC-1: OCLC/NCSA Metadata Workshop

The OCLC/NCSA Metadata Workshop, the first in what would become the Dublin Core workshop series, convened 52 professionals from diverse fields — computer science, librarianship, online information services, abstracting and indexing, imaging and geospatial data, museum and archive control — to address the problem of describing networked information resources.

The workshop aimed to foster a common understanding of the needs, strengths, shortcomings, and solutions of various stakeholder communities, and to reach consensus on a core set of metadata elements for describing networked resources.

Key Outcomes

The workshop produced the original Dublin Core Metadata Element Set — thirteen core elements for describing networked resources:

1. Subject — The topic addressed by the work
2. Title — The name of the object
3. Author — The person(s) primarily responsible for the intellectual content
4. Publisher — The agent or agency responsible for making the object available
5. OtherAgent — Other significant intellectual contributors (editors, transcribers)
6. Date — The date of publication
7. ObjectType — The genre of the object (novel, poem, dictionary, etc.)
8. Form — The physical manifestation (PostScript file, Windows executable, etc.)
9. Identifier — A string or number used to uniquely identify the object
10. Relation — Relationship to other objects
11. Source — Objects from which this object is derived
12. Language — Language of the intellectual content
13. Coverage — Spatial locations and temporal durations characteristic of the object

These elements were guided by six principles: intrinsicality (focus on properties discoverable from the work itself), extensibility, syntax independence, optionality (all elements voluntary), repeatability, and modifiability (elements can be qualified).

Implementation

Nine organizations initiated prototype projects based on the workshop results, including OCLC, the Library of Congress, O'Reilly Associates, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Georgia Institute of Technology, SoftQuad, and Concordia University.

Legacy

This workshop established the foundation for what became the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. The element set was subsequently refined through seven more workshops before becoming the 15-element Dublin Core that was standardized as ISO 15836 and IETF RFC 5013.

Workshop Position Paper

The workshop position paper was edited by Stuart Weibel, Jean Godby, Eric Miller, and Ron Daniel.

Resources

• Workshop position paper (Internet Archive)
• General information (Internet Archive)
• Schedule and agenda (Internet Archive)
• Registration list (Internet Archive)