Metadata Standards

Metadata Standards

The use of widely accepted standards is essential to the efficient, quick, easy transfer of information. Alexandria has to date used the following metadata and metadata-content standards.

1. Content standards for digital geospatial metadata. Reston VA: U.S. Federal Geographic Data Committee, 1994.
   

   At a June 8, 1994, meeting, FGDC approved this document, which specifies the information content of metadata for digital geospatial data.
   

   FGDC Metadata Standards Development homepage

   http://fgdc.er.usgs.gov/Metadata/metahome.html
   

2. USMARC (MAchine Readable Cataloging)
   

   USMARC is a standard for the representation and communication of bibliographic and related information in machine-readable form. It is used in the United States by virtually every library that has an online catalog; it has undergone various changes and become UNIMARC, CANMARC, UKMARC, etc., for use outside the United States.

   Within a year of the publication of the FGDC document just mentioned, all fields in FGDC that were not already in USMARC had been added.

   USMARC homepage

   http://lcweb.loc.gov/marc/marc.html
   

3. Library of Congress subject headings. Washington, D.C.: Catalog Distribution Service, Library of Congress.
   • available hardcopy as an annual (current edition is 18th, 1995)

   • available on CD as CDMARC Authors (1 CD); quarterly

   • available as an online service through, e.g., OCLC, RLIN, etc.
   
   

   This listing of ca. 200,000 subject headings is widely used in libraries in the U.S, as a source for subject headings. It is intended for libraries with general collections.
   

4. Library of Congress name authority file. Washington, D.C.: Catalog Distribution Service.
   • available on CD as CDMARC subjects (4 CDs); quarterly

   • available as an online service through, e.g., OCLC, RLIN, etc.
   
   

   This listing of ca. 3 million authority records (personal names; corporate names; series; uniform titles) is widely used in libraries as a source for authors in bibliographic records.

5. Anglo-American cataloguing rules. 2d ed., 1988 rev. Chicago: American Library Association.
   • available for $45 paperback from the American Library Association, 50 East Huron, Chicago IL 60611; ALA website is at: http://www.ala.org/

   This set of cataloging rules (referred to as "AACR2R" by catalogers) is intended for use in general libraries of all sizes, for all types of materials. As the title implies, the rules were written by a group of catalogers from North America, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. There is not currently a digital version available for use.

6. Cartographic materials: a manual of interpretation for AACR2. 1982. Chicago: American Library Association.

   A second edition of this out-of-print cataloging manual for cartographic materials is being worked on; compilers would like to have it completed by sometime in late 1997.