Proposals for encoding schemes in DC-Lib AP

6 June 2003

This constitutes a series of "fast-track" proposals for adding encoding schemes that are needed in the Dublin Core Library Application Profile. These do not include any proposals for the element Subject, which has an experimental tool for encoding scheme registration. This document will be discussed at the Dublin Core Usage Board meeting in June 2003 in Ithaca, N.Y.

1. Background.

The Dublin Core Library Application Profile specifies a number of encoding schemes that provide rules for encoding or controlled lists of values to be used with Dublin Core elements. In the absence of a registration tool (which currently is being tested for registering subject schemes), this document proposes these schemes for use with Dublin Core elements other than Subject.

One issue is the URI for an encoding scheme that is maintained outside of DCMI. There are a number that are already available with Dublin Core URIs (e.g. http://purl.org/dc/terms/LCSH ). As other institutions, particularly the Library of Congress, assigns URIs to its metadata elements, the situation will exist where more than one persistent name exists for the given encoding scheme: that assigned in DCMI terms and the one assigned by the maintenance agency. This issue needs to be considered in registering new DCMI encoding schemes.

2. Proposals for encoding schemes