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METS Editorial Board Formed (May 29, 2002)

The Digital Library Federation launched the METS initiative to produce an XML data format which digital libraries could use to encode and store structural and related metadata for complex digital library objects, and to achieve a greater degree of interoperability in exchanging such objects. To further promote the goal of interoperability of information between digital libraries, members of the METS initiative decided to form an editorial board that will perform the following duties:

• work with the larger digital library community to further develop the XML schema defining the METS document format, and serve as the arbiters for any proposed revisions to the schema;
• actively promote the development of extension XML schema to work with the METS schema, and endorse particular schema for use with METS when such an endorsement may promote interoperability of METS documents across systems;
• work with the Library of Congress to provide registry services for application profiles for use of the METS document format and for repositories employing the METS format;
• work with the Library of Congress to provide registry services for application profiles for use of the METS document format and for repositories employing the METS format;
• promote the development of open source software to help digital libraries in making use of the METS format, and provide advice to commercial and non-commercial software developers seeking to implement support for the METS format;
• seek support for documentation and educational efforts necessary to help digital libraries in adopting the METS format; and
• work with the digital library community to ensure the METS document format supports and complements other prominent digital library standards and initiatives such as DCMI, EAD, MARC, OAI and TEI, and developing standards such as MODS.

The Library of Congress has agreed to serve as the maintenance agency for the METS schema, endorsed extension schema, and the registry services mentioned above.

The Research Libraries Group will be serving as a coordinator for the METS editorial board, assisting with administrative tasks of the board and fund-raising to support the METS initiative.

The following individuals have agreed to serve on the METS editorial board:

• Jerome McDonough (Chair)
  New York University
• Rick Beaubien
  University of California
• Morgan Cundiff
  Library of Congress
• Nancy Hoebelheirich
  Stanford University
• Mark Kornbluh
  Michigan State University
• Cecilia Preston
  Preston & Lynch
• Merrilee Proffitt
  Research Libraries Group
• Richard Rinehart
  Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive
• Mackenzie Smith
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Taylor Surface
  OCLC
• Robin Wendler
  Harvard University

We have not finalized board membership at this point, and the current board members would like to encourage organizations with a strong interest in promoting the development and use of the METS format to consider requesting appointment of a delegate to the editorial board. The current board members would particularly like to encourage participation by organizations outside the United States. Those considering requesting membership in the board should keep in mind that participation will require a commitment of both time and financial resources; while the board will be seeking funding to assist its members in pursuing the initiative's goals, at this point the board has only very limited funding for assisting with travel and other expenses. Those interested in requesting membership in the board should contact the METS editorial board chair, Jerome McDonough, at jerome.mcdonough@nyu.edu.

At this point, the board membership would like to thank all of those who have participated in the METS initiative to date and contributed to its enthusiastic reception. In particular, the board would like to thank Daniel Greenstein, former Director of the Digital Library Federation, without whose support METS would never have happened. We hope our work will help provide a standard upon which the entire digital community can build, and look forward to what will certainly be exciting and interesting work!

Jerome McDonough
Digital Library Development Team Leader
Elmer Bobst Library, New York University
70 Washington Square South, 8th Floor
New York, NY 10012
jerome.mcdonough@nyu.edu
(212) 998-2425

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