A note about the DCMI Abstract Model

From DigiRepWiki

[ Home | Functional Requirements | Application Model | Application Profile | Community Acceptance Plan | Mapping to Simple DC | XML Format

The DCMI Abstract Model (DCAM) provides a syntax-neutral abstract model for Dublin Core metadata and describes the constructs that make up a DC metadata description set.

According to the DCAM:

• a description set is made up of one or more descriptions
• a description is made up of
  • zero or one resource URI and
  • one or more statements
• a statement is made up of
  • exactly one property URI and
  • zero or one reference to a value in the form of a value URI
  • zero or more representations of a value, each in the form of a value representation
  • zero or one vocabulary encoding scheme URI
• a value representation is either
  • a value string or
  • a rich representation
• a value string may have an associated value string language
• a value string may have an associated syntax encoding scheme URI
• a value may be the subject of a related description

The DCMI is currently revising its guidelines for encoding DC metadata in XML and RDF/XML in line with the DCAM. These new guidelines will enable the exchange of more complex description sets' between software applications.