"A centre of excellence in digital information management, providing advice and services to the library, information and cultural heritage communities."

UKOLN is based at the University of Bath.

The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) is an organisation dedicated to promoting the widespread adoption of interoperable metadata standards and developing specialised metadata vocabularies for describing resources that enable more intelligent information discovery systems. DCMI is the maintenance agency for the Dublin Core standard (ISO 15836), the most widely used international standard for metadata description, and is responsible for its development, standardisation and promotion.

The UK is at the forefront of the development of common global standards for the Internet and has played a pivotal role in the development and adoption of the Dublin Core. Since 2004, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) have jointly been formally involved in the development of the standard as the UK Affiliate of the DCMI.

UKOLN, a centre of expertise in digital information management, based at the University of Bath and funded jointly by MLA and JISC, was one of the early advocates of the Dublin Core. As part of the UK affiliation, UKOLN acts as adviser on the implementation and technical development of the standard in the UK.