Nota Bene: It is highly recommended that the user of this document read the Introduction to obtain a fuller understanding of Dublin Core and its implementation.
Many documents published may have relations to others. This particular document has the relation to the Dublin Core Table of Contents published as a separate page. In this particular case, the user of this document may not know that there are fourteen more pages discussing the other DC elements as well as other information (e.g. glossary, introduction, etc.) at his disposal.
| TYPE | SCHEME | LANG |
|---|---|---|
(default=English) Standard ISO 639 | ||
The phrasing of the TYPE qualifiers can be confusing at first. the CONTENT value in each meta element is another source or document. It is not describing the document the metadata is attached to, but another document that is related to it. An example may help clarify:
<META NAME="DC.identifier" CONTENT="(SCHEME=URL) http://mailer.fsu.edu/~gvf4318/dcrelation.html>
This is the URL for a this document you are reading now. It is part of a collection of documents. The contents of this collection (i.e. the Table of Contents of the User's guide) can be found at the following URL represented by metadata.
<META NAME="DC.relation.IsMemberOf" CONTENT="(SCHEME=URL) http://mailer.fsu.edu/~gvf4318/guide.html>
The TYPE value appended to the DC.relation is telling the reader that the URL provided in the CONTENT value is a document higher in a hierarchy (e.g. a table of contents) of which the metadata found in this document (what's was placed in the identifier element) is but one piece in that hierarchy.
The TYPE IsChildOf may help in clarifying this concept. The home page, or the top-most page created by you can be considered the "parent page." You may create a second page and provide a link on the parent page to this new page. The New Page would have the metadata Identifier Element and Relation Element that looked like the following:
<META NAME="DC.identifier" CONTENT="(SCHEME=URL) http://mailer.fsu.edu/~gvf4318/second page.html">
<META NAME="DC.relation.IsChildOf" CONTENT="(SCHEME=URL) http://mailer.fsu.edu/~gvf4318/">
IsChildOf means that the new page is a child of the URL provided in the CONTENTs.
The same thing may be desired for the parent page. The referring data in the Relation element IsParentOf when used in the home page metadata would point to all other documents created by the author using the same host (e.g. mailer.fsu.edu). It is not always necessary or desirable to do this, but the option is there.
The last TYPE qualifier to mention is IsTermsAndConditionsFor. This qualifier points to a document stating the restrictions of use of the document you are reading.
Please send your questions, comments, or suggestions to
gfrost@valdosta.edu
Copyright ©1997 by Guy Frost
Last Updated July 27, 1997