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Home » About Us » Library Policies » Digital Preservation Policy » Metadata Specifications

Metadata Specifications

Policy Statement 

York University Libraries require thorough, well-structured metadata in order to preserve the content, relationships, activities and logical structure of an object. 

Implementation 

  • Descriptive metadata
    • This metadata is descriptive about an object, and used for discovery. This metadata is generally based on Qualified Dublin Core, and requires human labour in collaboration stakeholders and partners. 
    • Examples can include:
      • Title 
      • Creator(s) 
      • Date(s) 
      • Description 
      • Subjects 
      • Genre 
      • Identifier(s) 
      • Rights 
  • Technical metadata
    • This metadata is generally technical in the characteristics of an object, and is generally machine generated on ingest. 
    • Examples can include:
      • Resolution 
      • Colour space 
      • Scanning software 
      • MIME type 
      • Audio/video codec 
  • Preservation metadata
    • This metadata generally tracks the history of the object in a given preservation platform, and is generally machine generated upon specific events such as ingest, and object modifications. 
    • Examples can include:
      • Account information on creation & modification 
      • Creation & modification timestamps 
      • Fixity information 
      • Access restrictions 

Reviewed: April 29, 2024