Reading #6

Caplan, P. (2003). MOA2 and METS. In Metadata Fundamentals for All Librarians (pp. 161-165). Chicago: American Library Association.

This book’s section on METS begins with its history: In 1997 the Digital Library Federation began a project called Making of America II.  Then, in 2001, a workshop was convened to discuss modification of MOA2.  A result of the workshop was a successor format, known as METS.  The section continues on to describe the differences between MOA2 and METS.  METS, unlike MOA2 has a header section containing information about the METS file itself as well as a behavioral section detailing information about behaviors associated with the object.  Another major difference is the external metadata record or embedded metadata from a non-METS namespace within a wrapper element.  The author recommends the external metadata record as a way to avoid maintenance issues that could arise due to changes in standards or project focus.  The many parts of a METS file are then listed, along with a brief explanation of each of the subparts.  For example: The ‘fileSec’ groups information about files related to the digital object within a wrapping.  The ‘FLocat’ subelement can be used to link to the actual file.  The author demonstrates well the impressive flexibility and extensibility (through the extension schema) of METS through outlining its history and providing sample file excerpts that show METS’ many potential uses.