METS from scratch Jerome McDonough New York University October 21, 2003

steps to a METS object analyse object decide on extension schema create root element build file section build structural map build administrative metadata build descriptive metadata build

object analysis three content files: high bit rate MPEG4, low bit rate QuickTime, and TEI text transcriptionhigh bit rate MPEG4low bit rate QuickTimeTEI text transcription how many manifestations are we dealing with? what’s the intended use? is there innate structure to manifestations? do we want to present that structure? what do we need to manage this object? what do we need to let users find this?

extension schema descriptive metadata administrative metadata – technical – rights – digital provenance – source XLink

root element attributes: OBJID, LABEL, TYPE, PROFILE namespace declarations schemaLocation declaration

building the file section file grouping file specific technical metadata internal vs. external files file location mechanisms welcome to XML namespacing the GROUPID attribute

building the structural map structures content file affordances plain vs. use of / / elements

building administrative metadata internal vs. external welcome to XML namespacing (again) relating files to administrative metadata

building descriptive metadata internal vs. external relating object, files to descriptive metadata

building the why altRecordID?

a few final words of advice validation is your friend; make sure your XML software really validates everything, including extension schema sections. if you are creating content (say, TEI), make sure you create it in a way that makes it easy to build METS around it. simpler is better. METS profiles are even better friends than validation.