Home » Publications » Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology » Browse Terms »

Dublin Core

Relationships
Broader Term: 
metadata
Abbreviation Of: 
DC
Abbreviation: 
DC

n. (DC, abbr.) ~ A standard (ISO 15836, ANSI Z39.85) that defines metadata elements used to describe and provide access to online materials.

Notes: 

Dublin Core is often used to provide a common bridge between different metadata schemes, although some projects use Dublin Core as their native descriptive metadata. Originally intended to describe online resources, DC is often used to describe offline, nondigitized materials or digital surrogates of those materials.

The data elements of unqualified Dublin Core include title, creator, subject, description, publisher, contributor, date, type, format, identifier, source, language, relation, coverage, and rights. In qualified Dublin Core, elements may be refined for greater specificity.

DC is maintained by the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. See http://dublincore.org/.

Citations:
†(Dublin Core 1995) [Dublin Core Metadata Initiative] An organization dedicated to promoting the widespread adoption of interoperable metadata standards and developing specialized metadata vocabularies for describing resources that enable more intelligent information discovery systems. ¶ The original workshop for the Initiative was held in Dublin, Ohio in 1995. Hence the term 'Dublin Core' in the name of the Initiative.