METS News and Announcements
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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