Commonly-used metadata formats in the Arts and Humanities

Format / standard	Full name or organisation	Subject or Domain	Notes
CDWA	Categories for the Description of Works of Art	Art	Core identifies the minimum information necessary to uniquely and unambiguously identify a particular work of art or museum object.
CIMI	CIMI Consortium	Museums	Now defunct but some organisations will have legacy metadata in this format.
DDI	Data Documentation Initiative	Social science datasets	Originated in the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research and is now the project of an Alliance of about 25 institutions in North America and Europe.
EAD	Encoded Archival Description	Archival	Used to encode/mark up finding aids in archives. Retains/reflects the arrangement/structure/provenance of archival resources.
IEEE-LOM	IEEE Learning Objects Metadata	Educational	Good for recording the level at which a resource is pitched and the use/audience for which it is designed.
MARC	Machine Readable Cataloguing: including MARC21 USMARC UKMARC UNIMARC	Library	Bibliographic. The tagging structure within which AACR2 rules are normally applied. Developed initially for books/journals but used for all types of library resources physical and digital.
MODS	Metadata Object Description Schema	Bibliographic	XML schema primarily for library resources which is easier to use than MARC but allows for richer description than Dublin Core.
MPEG7 & MPEG21	Moving Picture Experts Group	Audio-visual	A family of standards used for coding audio-visual information (e.g. movies video music) in a digital compressed format.
Qualified DC	Qualified Dublin Core	All	Emphasis on interoperability between resources from all domains subjects and resource types whether physical or digital.
RSLP Collection Level Description	UKOLN	Collections	Interoperable method for describing digital and/or traditional collections from libraries/archives/museums.
Simple DC	Simple Dublin Core	All	Emphasis on interoperability between resources from all domains subjects and resource types whether physical or digital.
SPECTRUM/MDA	MDA	Museums	"The museum documentatioin standard. Spectrum documents objects and the processes they undergo as well as identifying and describing the information which needs to be recorded to support the procedures. "
TEI header	Text Encoding Initiative	Digital text	An XML or SGML-encoded bibliographic record that is attached to and forms a part of the digital text itself.
VRA Core 3.0	Visual Resources Association Core 3.0	Art images	A single element set that can be repeated to describe in a single over-arching structure original works of visual art and also images of them.
AACR2	Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules	Library/bibliographic	The rules for the description of and the provision of access points for all library materials.
ABC Harmony		All	Entirely developmental/conceptual model for cross-domain interoperability and to record the lifecycle/recycling of complext digital resources.
AMICO	Art Museum Image Consortium	Art images	The specification of the AMICO Library a growing online collection of high-quality digital documentation of works of art from around the world. Based on the CDWA.
CIDOC	International Committee for Documentation of the International Council of Museums	Museums and archives	A conceptual reference model providing definitions and a formal structure for describing implicit/explicit concepts/relationships used in cultural heritage documentation.
EPICS/ONIX		Book industry	Schema used by publishers to describe their book and other resources electronically to data aggregators wholesalers booksellers and anyone else involved in the sale of their publications.
FRBR	Functional Requirements for Bibliograrphic Records	Library	Developmental. Records relationships between bibliogrpahic works manifestations versions etc.
IAFA/ROADS	Resource Organisation and Discovery in Subject-based Services	All	Developmental project co-ordinated by UKOLN that developed a metadata format for cross-subject interoperability but the project is now defunct.
IMS	IMS Global Learning Consortium Inc.	Education	Specifications for describing interoperable learning packages.
INDECS	Interoperability of Data in E-Commerce	E-commerce	Intellectual property (IP) and rights.
ISAD(G)	General International Standard Archival Description	Archival	Rules for the description of archival resources.
MAD3	Manual for Archival Description 3rd ed.	Archival	Rule for describing archival resources.
Object ID		Art and antiquities	"An international standard for describing art antiques and antiquities to help combat theft."
P/META		Audiovisual	Used for information exchange by the TV and broadcast media.
PICS	Platform for Internet Content Selection	Internet content	Labelling/rating internet content e.g. to control what children can access.
SMPTE		Audiovisual	Used for information exchange by the TV and broadcast media.
SOIF	Summary Object Interchange Format	Web objects	The attribute-value pair record format which Harvest Brokers use to exchange Harvest content summaries.