RFC 2731 (rfc2731) - Page 1 of 23

Encoding Dublin Core Metadata in HTML

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Network Working Group                                           J. Kunze
Request for Comments: 2731                                   Dublin Core
Category: Informational                              Metadata Initiative
                                                           December 1999


                 Encoding Dublin Core Metadata in HTML


Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

1. Abstract

   The Dublin Core [DC1] is a small set of metadata elements for
   describing information resources.  This document explains how these
   elements are expressed using the META and LINK tags of HTML
   [HTML4.0].  A sequence of metadata elements embedded in an HTML file
   is taken to be a description of that file.  Examples illustrate
   conventions allowing interoperation with current software that
   indexes, displays, and manipulates metadata, such as [SWISH-E],
   [freeWAIS-sf2.0], [GLIMPSE], [HARVEST], [ISEARCH], etc., and the Perl
   [PERL] scripts in the appendix.

2. HTML, Dublin Core, and Non-Dublin Core Metadata

   The Dublin Core (DC) metadata initiative [DCHOME] has produced a
   small set of resource description categories [DC1], or elements of
   metadata (literally, data about data).  Metadata elements are
   typically small relative to the resource they describe and may, if
   the resource format permits, be embedded in it.  Two such formats are
   the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and the Extensible Markup
   Language (XML); HTML is currently in wide use, but once standardized,
   XML [XML] in conjunction with the Resource Description Framework
   [RDF] promise a significantly more expressive means of encoding
   metadata.  The [RDF] specification actually describes a way to use
   RDF within an HTML document by adhering to an abbreviated syntax.







Kunze                        Informational
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