Dublin Core Metadata Element Set recognized by ISO;
Finland becomes first national affiliate

The Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (DCMES) has been approved by the International Standards Organization (ISO) as an international metadata standard.

DCMES, also known as “Dublin Core,” was developed for use on the Web and in other information networks across a wide variety of subject areas, languages and economic sectors. Dublin Core has been been adopted by seven national governments and translated into 30 languages. OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. serves as the primary sponsor for the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI), and manages its Web site. DCMI is the maintenance agency for the Dublin Core standard and is responsible for its development, standardization and promotion.

“The ISO recognition serves as a seal of approval of the Dublin Core. DCMI is pleased with the international recognition by ISO,” said DCMI director Makx Dekkers.

Helsinki University Library (The National Library of Finland) recently pledged Finland’s continuing support of DCMI by becoming the organization's first national affiliate. “We are very pleased to become the first national affiliate of DCMI. The Dublin Core standard has been used in Finland for years and I am confident that the number of users and implementations will continue to grow,” said Juha Hakala, the national library’s director of Information Technology.

The DCMI Affiliate program is intended to provide a stronger link between local communities and DCMI. Affiliates help promote the adoption of Dublin Core, maintain local language translations and help support the infrastructure and management of DCMI, including participating in its governance.

The Dublin Core community will hold its annual conference Sept. 29 - Oct. 2, 2003, in Seattle, Washington. A pre-conference program, “Metadata and Search” and “Metadata Primer” is set for Sept. 28. This year's conference, “Supporting Communities of Discourse and Practice-Metadata Research & Applications,” will include workshops, research project presentations and speaking tracks such as: Encoding DC in (X)HTML and XML; Dublin Core Application Profiles; FAST Workshop. The DC-2003 conference is sponsored by Microsoft, DCMI, University of Washington Libraries, Information Institute of Syracuse, Information School, JES & Co, SchemaLogic, Sutton Associates Consulting and Siderean Software.

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