Standards & Tools
Related Metadata Standards
Note: Many of the schema listed below are proposals and have not been implemented at all or may not have been widely implemented. When in doubt, contact the authoring organization for more information.
AAF. Advanced Authoring Format. AAF Association, Inc.
The Advanced Authoring Format (AAF) is a multimedia file format that enables content creators to easily exchange digital media and metadata across platforms, and between systems and applications.
Proposed standard for network and file transfer of audio.
METS. Metadata Encoding & Transmission Standard.
A standard schema for encoding descriptive, administrative, and structural metadata regarding objects within a digital library, expressed using the XML schema language of the World Wide Web Consortium. The standard is maintained in the Network Development and MARC Standards Office of the Library of Congress and is being developed as an initiative of the Digital Library Federation. The METS Web site includes an Overview and Tutorial about the primary schema that is intended to serve as a framework document and explains that users may select extension schemas in order to provide additional metadata.
MPEG-21. International Organization for Standardization.
MPEG-21 aims at defining a normative open framework for multimedia delivery and consumption for use by all the players in the "value chain," from creator to consumer. In this sense, it covers much more than intellectual property rights. The goal of MPEG-21 is to define the technology needed to support users to exchange, access, consume, trade and otherwise manipulate digital items in an efficient, transparent and interoperable way.
MXF. Material eXchange Format. SMPTE.
SMPTE standards available for purchase at the SMPTE store. The Material eXchange Format is a new standard created for interchanging media- and metadata. MXF allows user to store metadata and media-data in one file and/or stream. This is achieved by 'wrapping up' all data (media- and metadata) in a standardized hierarchical way. The amount of descriptive metadata, which can be included in an MXF file stream can be quite extensive. Metadata not only include important information on e.g. display size, compression method etc. but also a wide range of descriptive metadata related to the media content and production (e.g. shot location, list of participants etc.).
NISO MIX. NISO Metadata for Images in XML. Library of Congress.
XML schema for a set of technical data elements required to manage digital image collections. The schema provides a format for interchange and/or storage of the data specified in the NISO Draft Standard Data Dictionary: Technical Metadata for Digital Still Images (Version 1.2)
UPF. Universal Preservation Format. WGBH.
Proposed standard for the archiving of media assets.