Reviews major developments in the MAchine-Readable Cataloging (MARC) format renamed MARC 21 for the twenty-first century, including a description of metadata schemes and cross-walks. Offers an assessment of how well MARC works for Arabic script materials; describes the degree to which MARC is used in Saudi Arabia; and considers prospects for the…

Describes the CCF (Common Communication Format) and the INFLIBNET (Information and Library Network) standard, two forms of metadata developed to represent the bibliographic resources available to libraries and to facilitate easy retrieval of resources. Proposes a crosswalk between core CCF and INFLIBNET bibliographic data fields and 15 Dublin Core…

Describes the Web Characterization Project that characterizes the use of metadata in Web documents by extracting a valid sample. Discusses Web resource discovery and description; sampling methods; metadata and embedded document description; HTML; Dublin Core metadata elements; and home pages versus internal Web pages. (Author/LRW)

Describes how the Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata was developed and how it relates to USMARC Format for Bibliographic Data to provide the ability to communicate and access descriptions for digital spatial datasets. A crosswalk that correlates the geospatial metadata data element to the appropriate USMARC field or subfield is…

Surveys ongoing metadata projects to identify the types of metadata that exist and how they are used; compares and analyzes selected metadata elements to illustrate how they are related to MARC 21 metadata format elements; and discusses metadata standards, Dublin Core, diversity in classification, and the role of the Library of Congress.…

Includes four articles that discuss Dublin Core metadata, digital rights management and electronic books, including interoperability; and directed query engines, a type of search engine designed to access resources on the deep Web that is being used at the Department of Energy. (LRW)

Competence-based approaches are frequently adopted as the key paradigm in both formal or non-formal education and training. To support the provision of competence-based learning services, it is necessary to be able to maintain a record of an individual's competences in a persistent and standard way. In this paper, we investigate potential issues…

ActiveMath is a complex web-based adaptive learning environment with a number of components and interactive learning tools. The basis for handling semantics of learning content is provided by its semantic (mathematics) content markup, which is additionally annotated with educational metadata. Several components, tools and external services can…

Use of electronic teaching materials (e-material) to support teaching is a trend. e-Material design is therefore an important issue. Currently, most e-material providers offer a package of solutions for different purposes. However, not all teachers and learners need everything from a single package. A preferable alternative is to find useful…

The IMS Learning Design specification (LD) was introduced as an answer to the shortcomings of existing learning technology specifications. The main difference with existing specifications is that LD is an abstract, conceptual model that is able to express various pedagogical approaches whereby content can be adapted to personal needs and…

Today's technology-enhanced learning practices cater to students and teachers who use many different learning tools and environments and are used to a paradigm of interaction derived from open, ubiquitous, and socially oriented services. In this context, a crucial issue for education systems in general, and for Intelligent Learning Environments…

Describes the characteristics of natural languages that hinder the optimal organization and accessing of networked resources, focusing on the semantic mapping processes utilizing thesauri or metadata. Considers future information retrieval system design, especially networked retrieval and natural language, and gives an example of problems in…

Presents the Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections that was developed by the Institute of Museum and Library Services with other organizations to guide museums and libraries in digitization collection practices. Highlights digital collections, digital objects, and metadata, and discusses reusability, persistence,…

Discusses the deficiencies of search engines and the importance of metadata and examines three models of metadata retrieval: distributed; distributed data with a centralized index; and centralized union catalog. Highlights include the Z39.50 protocol; the OAI (Open Archives Initiative) protocol; virtual union catalogs; and a pan-European model.…

Explains the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) Protocol for Metadata Harvesting and its impact on digital libraries and information retrieval by transferring metadata from one server to another in a network of information systems. Highlights include data providers; service providers; value-added services; Dublin Core metadata; data transfer;…