1. Jerome McDonough New York University jerome.mcdonough@nyu.edu
METS: A Status Report
Jerome McDonough
New York University

2. METS: What is it?
A XML document format for encoding digital library objects which can fulfill roles of SIP, AIP and DIP within the OAIS reference model
Initial scope limited to objects comprised of text, image, audio & video files
Promote interoperability of descriptive, administrative and technical metadata while supporting flexibility in local practice

3. METS: Why?
“If tools are to be developed that work with digitized archival objects across distributed repositories, these objects will require some form of standardization. “
The Making of America II Testbed Project: A Digital Library Service Model Bernard J. Hurley, John Price-Wilkin, Merrilee Proffitt, Howard Besser

4. METS: Who’s to blame?
Jerome McDonough (Editoral Board Chair), New York University
Rick Beaubien, University of California
Morgan Cundiff, Library of Congress
Susan Dahl, University of Alberta
Richard Gartner, Bodleian Library at Oxford
Nancy Hoebelheirich, Stanford University
Mark Kornbluh, Michigan State University
Cecilia Preston, Preston & Lynch
Merrilee Proffitt, Research Libraries Group
Richard Rinehart, BAM/PFA
Mackenzie Smith, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Taylor Surface, OCLC
Brian Tingle, California Digital Library
Robin Wendler, Harvard University

5. METS: Who’s using it? CDL – Content Mgmt./Digital Object Repository
Cornell/UVA – Fedora/Tibetan & Himalayan Dig. Library
Florida Center for Library Automation – Union Catalog of Digital Materials, Digital Archive
Göttingen Digitalisierungs-Zentrum – Retrospective Digitization
Harvard University Library -- biomedical image stacks, preservation audio, page-turned objects
Library of Congress – Audio-Visual Prototyping Project
MIT – DSPACE
NYU Libraries– Digital Repository, CRL Web Archiving

6. METS: Who’s using it? OCLC – Digital Archive Implementation
Oxford University – Oxford Digital Library
RLG – Cultural Materials Service
Stanford University Library/AIS – Stanford Digital Repository
University of Alberta – Peel’s Prairie Provinces Project
UC Berkeley Library – Archival Collections, TOC/Indexes for off-site material, CS Tech Report (w/OAI Interface)
Univ. of Chicago Library – Digital Collections
University of Graz, Austria – Austrian Literature Online

7. METS: Technical Components
Primary XML Schema
Extension Schema
Controlled Vocabularies

8. METS XML Schema METS Document Header Admin. MD Link Struct. Behaviors
Descript. MD
File List
Struct. Map

9. Structural Map
Object modeled as tree structure (e.g., book with chapters with subchapters….)
Every node in tree can be associated with descriptive/administrative metadata and…
Individual/multiple files (or portions thereof) or
Other METS documents

10. Structural Map <div type=“book” label=“Hunting of the Snark”>
<div type=“chapter” label=“Fit the First”>
<fptr>…</fptr>
</div>
<div type=“chapter” label=“Fit the Second”> …

11. Link Structure Records all links between nodes in structural map
Uses XLink/Xptr syntax
Caveat Encoder: make sure your structural map supports your link structure

12. Content Files Listing
Records file specific technical metadata (checksum, file size, creation date/time) as well as providing access to file content
Files are arranged into groups, which can be arranged hierarchically
Files may be referenced (using Xlink) or contained within the METS document (in XML or as Base64 Binary)

13. Descriptive Metadata Non-prescriptive/Multiple instances
Desc. metadata associated with entirety of METS object or subcomponents
Desc. metadata may be internal (XML or binary) or external (referenced by XLink) to METS document

14. Administrative Metadata
4 Types: Technical, Rights, Source Document, Digital Provenance
Non-prescriptive/Multiple instances
associated with entirety of METS object or subcomponents
may be internal (XML/binary) or external (XLink) to METS document

15. METS Header Metadata regarding METS document
Creation/Last Modification Date/Record Status
Document Agents (Creator, Editor, Archivist, Preservation, Disseminator, Rights Owner, Custodian, etc.)
Alternative Record ID values

16. Behaviors Section Multiple Behaviors allowed for any METS document
Behaviors may operate on any part of METS document
May provide information on API, service location, etc.

17. METS Structure

18. METS Structure Oral History MARC21 Record AIFF Master AES/EBU
Introduction
Q1 & Answer
AIFF Master
AES/EBU
Tech. Metadata
Q2 & Answer
TEI Tran-scription
Text Tech.
Metadata
Time Code Link
IDREF Link

19. METS Extension Schema Descriptive Metadata (DC, MARCXML, MODS)
Administrative Metadata
Technical
image: NISO Still Image (MIX)
text: NYU & LOC A/V Prototyping
audio: AES/EBU (Real Soon Now) & LOC A/V Prototyping
video: SMPTE (Not Real Soon) & LOC A/V Prototyping
IP Rights (XrML, ODRL, MPEG 21, Stanford)
Digital Provenance (capture/migration): LOC A/V Prototyping & OCLC/RLG Working Group (Soon than I’d like)

20. METS Examples Afghanistan Digital Library Library of Congress Viewer
NYU Multimedia Viewer
METS + Zooming Spaces

21. METS Example: Time-Based Media
<m:file ID="F01" MIMETYPE="image/gif">
<m:file ID="F02" MIMETYPE="audio/wav">
<m:file ID="F03" MIMETYPE="text/plain">
<m:div LABEL="slide 1"><m:fptr><m:par>
<m:area FILEID="F01"/>
<m:area FILEID="F02" BEGIN="00:00:00.100" END="00:00:03.500" BETYPE="SMIL" EXTENT="2.5s" EXTTYPE="SMIL"/>
<m:area FILEID="F03" BEGIN="p01" END="p02" BETYPE="IDREF"/>
</m:par></m:fptr></m:div>
This, plus….

22. METS Example: Time-Based Media
<body>
<p id="p01">Recovery from drug or alcohol abuse can be a long lonely road</p>
<p id="p02">Help someone you love</p>
<p id="p03">Call </p>
<p id="p04">Help Close the Health Gap</p>
<p id="p05"/>
</body>
…this, along with an audio file and some XSLT, gives you…

23. METS Example: Time-Based Media
<smil><head><layout>
<root-layout id="right" width="320" height="404" background- color="green"/>
<region id="visualarea" left="0" top="0" width="100%" height="240"/>
<region id="textarea" left="0" top="242" width="100%" height="160"/>
</layout></head>
<body><par>
<img src="../image/gap01.gif" region="visualarea“
dur="00:00:31.000" />
<audio src="../audio/track01.wav" />
<text src="track01.txt" region="textarea" dur="00:00:31.000"/>
</par></body></smil>
…this, and…

24. METS Example: Time-Based Media
{QTtext}{font:Geneva}{plain}{size:12}{textColor: 65535, 65535, 65535}{backColor: 0, 0, 0}{justify:center}{timeScale:1000}{width:320}
{height:160}{timeStamps:absolute}{language:0}{textEncoding:0}
[00:00:00.000] Loading...
[00:00:00.100] Recovery from drug or alcohol abuse can be a long lonely road
[00:00:04.500] Help someone you love
[00:00:06.000] Call
[00:00:08.000] Help Close the Health Gap
[00:00:12.000] Closing...
[00:00:12.000]
…this.

25. METS Development Tools
Harvard Java Toolkit
NYU XSLT for METS
More coming soon…

26. METS Profiles
“Learning Zen is a phenomenon of gold and dung. Before you understand it, it's like gold; after you understand it, it's like dung.”

27. METS Profiles METS was designed to be flexible, so it could adapt
to your local practices, but that means:
different institutions can, and will, differ in how they define structural, administrative and descriptive metadata, even for the same work;
different institutions can, and will, differ in their use of content file formats;
different institutions can, and will differ in their use of rules of description, controlled vocabularies, etc., etc., etc….
So much for interoperability.

28. METS Profiles
METS profiles allow digital libraries to specify constraints
that they place on METS for ingest, storage/processing or
dissemination, including:
dictating use of particular extension schema, rules of description, and controlled vocabularies
specifying arrangement and use of METS elements and attributes for particular classes of documents
specifying the technical characteristics of data files within a METS object
identifying tools for creating/processing METS documents compliant with a particular profile

29. METS Profiles
An XML schema for METS profiles has been developed and distributed to the METS community for review.
A registration process has been developed by the METS editorial board in cooperation with the Lib. of Congress Network Dev. & MARC Stds Office.
Registration is optional; profiles are useful even without registration for defining local practice.

30. METS: Next Steps Better documentation
Training sessions (all over the place)
Tool development (particularly open source)
Help spark extension schema development (video tech. metadata, IP rights, digital provenance)
Work on controlled vocabularies for use in METS
Establish registry of METS repositories

31. METS: Further Info METS Web Site: http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets
METS Mailing List:
…or contact me at