DC-2: Warwick Metadata Workshop

The second Dublin Core Metadata Workshop was held at the University of Warwick, UK, bringing together approximately 50 representatives from libraries, Internet standards bodies, text markup communities, and digital library projects across three continents and eleven countries. It was endorsed by JISC, NCSA, DLib, and ERCIM.

The workshop built upon the consensus established at DC-1 in Dublin, Ohio, moving from the semantic content of the element set to practical deployment strategies for improving semantic interoperability on a global basis.

Key Outcomes

The Warwick Framework

The most significant deliverable of DC-2 was the Warwick Framework — a container architecture for aggregating metadata objects for interchange. This modular, extensible system accommodated multiple metadata types and models, distributed metadata references, and recursive metadata structures through typed packages (primitive, indirect, or container).

Dublin Core Specifications

The workshop produced:

• A concrete SGML DTD syntax for Dublin Core expression
• An HTML mapping convention using META tags to embed author-generated metadata in web documents
• A proposed use of LINK elements for external metadata references
• A convention for schema element grouping via prefix identifiers

Metadata Creation Guides

A working group was established to develop guidelines for metadata creation, addressing the needs of authors, collection administrators, and third-party catalogers.

Working Group Contributors

• Syntax working group: Lou Burnard, Eric Miller, Liam Quin, C.M. Sperberg-McQueen
• User guides working group: John Kunze, Priscilla Caplan, Bernal Rajapatarana, Frank Roos, Tom Baker
• Warwick Framework overview: Carl Lagoze, Clifford Lynch, Ron Daniel
• MIME implementation: Jon Knight, Martin Hamilton

Early Pilot Projects

Several pilot projects were already underway based on Dublin Core:

• Nordic Metadata Project (Juha Hakala, Helsinki University Library) — facilitating inter-library loan services across Scandinavia
• ROADS (Resource Organisation and Discovery in Subject-based Services) — eLib-funded project using IAFA/whois++ templates
• OCLC Research Initiatives — including Spectrum (user-based description) and Scorpion (automatic subject assignment)
• Alexandria Digital Library — NSF/NASA/ARPA-funded spatial data access project
• Library of Congress (Rebecca Guenther) — MARC mapping

Resources

• Workshop report: "A Syntax for Dublin Core Metadata" (Internet Archive)
• Schedule (Internet Archive)
• Registration list (Internet Archive)