DC-Text -- A simple text-based format for DC metadata

Abstract

All development activities undertaken by the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) are now underpinned by the DCMI Abstract Model (DCAM), the syntax-neutral framework within which Dublin Core (DC) metadata descriptions are constructed. As such, it is vital that the DCMI community has a simple way of articulating the DCAM and of sharing example metadata descriptions based on it. This paper describes a simple format for representing DC metadata descriptions in plain text, known as "DC-Text". The format is intended to be useful as a means of representing DC metadata examples in human-readable documents in a way that highlights the constructs of the DCAM.