Format and Resource Types Working Group - Type Element Working Draft, 1998-07-10

Resource Type Position Paper

The Dublin Core™ Resource Type (DC.Type) element is used to describe the category or genre of the content of the resource. For the sake of interoperability, the primary value should be selected from the enumerated list presented here.

• text
• image
• sound
• data
• software
• interactive
• physical object

These can be defined and used as follows:

text

  <dd>resources in which the content is primarily words for
  reading: for example - books, letters, dissertations, poems,
  newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that
  facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre
  "text".</dd>

  <dt>image</dt>

  <dd>the content is primarily visual in two dimensions and is
  not text: for example - images, graphics, paintings,
  animations, diagrams. Note that "image" may include both
  electronic and physical representations.</dd>

  <dt>sound</dt>

  <dd>the content is primarily audio: for example - music,
  speech, recorded sounds.</dd>

  <dt>data</dt>

  <dd>information encoded in lists, tables, databases, etc.,
  which will often be in a format available for direct machine
  processing: for example - spreadsheets, databases, GIS
  data.</dd>

  <dt>software</dt>

  <dd>computer programs in source or compiled form which may be
  available for installation non-transiently on another
  machine. (For software which exists only to create an
  interactive environment, use interactive instead.)</dd>

  <dt>interactive</dt>

  <dd>resources which require interaction from the user to be
  understood, executed, or experienced: for example - forms on
  web pages, applets, multimedia learning objects, chat
  services, virtual reality.</dd>

  <dt>physical object</dt>

  <dd>three dimensional objects or substances which are not
  primarily text or image or one of the other types listed
  here: for example - a person, a computer, the great pyramid,
  a sculpture, wheat.</dd>
</dl>

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Notes and future work

The concept of a Compound or Mixed resource type and the concept of a Collection were both under close scrutiny and discussion, but were rejected as values for DC.Type for Simple Dublin Core™. The reasons for not including these in the list of unqualified allowed for DC.Type metadata was due to retrieval considerations.

For Compound Resources, greater precision for searching for would be achieved by using the more specific DC.Type descriptors - if necessary in multiple usage. For example, a multimedia program with a single URL might have repeated DC.Types:

• DC.Type = sound
• DC.Type = interactive
• DC.Type = text
• DC.Type = image

Collection was considered but rejected because another Resource Type would often apply as its primary type. Collection can be brought out in a Relation element. It will also be considered as a subelement or subtype of Resource Type for qualified Dublin Core™ (e.g. Text.Collection).

Further refinement of the vocabulary for DC.Type will build on the above-mentioned list.