METS:
The Metadata Encoding
and Transmission Standard
Linda Cantara
SUMMARY. The Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS)
is a data communication standard for encoding descriptive, administra-
tive, and structural metadata regarding objects within a digital library,
expressed using the XML Schema Language of the World Wide Web
Consortium. An initiative of the Digital Library Federation, METS is
under development by an international editorial board and is maintained
in the Network Development and MARC Standards Office of the Li-
brary of Congress. Designed in conformance with the Open Archival
Information System (OAIS) Reference Model, a METS document en-
capsulates digital objects and metadata as Information Packages for
transmitting and/or exchanging digital objects to and from digital repos-
itories, disseminating digital objects via the Web, and archiving digital
objects for long-term preservation and access. This paper represents an
introduction to the METS standard and, through illustrated examples,
how to build a METS document. [Article copies available for a fee from The
Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address:
<docdelivery@haworthpress.com> Website: <http://www.HaworthPress.com>
© 2005 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]
Linda Cantara is Metadata Librarian, Kelvin Smith Library, 11055 Euclid Avenue,
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106 (E-mail: linda.cantara@
case.edu).
[Haworth co-indexing entry note]: “METS: The Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard.”
Cantara, Linda. Co-published simultaneously in Cataloging & Classification Quarterly (The Haworth Infor-
mation Press, an imprint of The Haworth Press, Inc.) Vol. 40, No. 3/4, 2005, pp. 237-253; and: Metadata: A
Cataloger’s Primer (ed: Richard P. Smiraglia) The Haworth Information Press, an imprint of The Haworth
Press, Inc., 2005, pp. 237-253. Single or multiple copies of this article are available for a fee from The
Haworth Document Delivery Service [1-800-HAWORTH, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (EST). E-mail address:
docdelivery@haworthpress.com].
Available online at http://www.haworthpress.com/web/CCQ
 2005 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1300/J104v40n03_11 237
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