Overview

The Australian METS Profile describes the rules and requirements for using METS as an exchange format to support the collection and preservation of and access to content in Australian digital repositories. The profile was developed as part of the Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories (APSR) Project, a collaboration of the National Library of Australia, the Australian National University, the University of Sydney and the University of Queensland. In 2006 a draft profile for exchange of digital objects between repositories was developed as part of the APSR/PRESTA Project. This new version of the profile is based on and refines this work. More information about this project may be found on the APSR wiki.

The Australian METS Profile has been developed as a generic profile for both Submission Information Packages and Dissemination Information Packages. It will form the apex of a three-layered model for using METS in a standards-based service-oriented way to describe objects in Australian repositories.

The aim of the generic profile is to abstract the common metadata requirements so that they can be inherited by content-model specific sub-profiles. As part of developing the generic profile we have identified and/or developed a number of controlled vocabularies for mandatory METS and PREMIS elements. Most of these are documented within the profile itself but the <div> TYPE attribute vocabulary will be maintained separately on this site so that it can be further developed over time.

Several content models have been developed as part of the project based on content being managed by project partners. The models are documented in the  <div> Type attribute vocabulary and include books, journals, conferences, newspapers and still images.  The content model specific sub-profiles will only contain the information specific to a given content model. At the third layer in the model, implementation profiles will "cherry-pick" the content models needing to be supported and detail by exception the extension schemas, controlled vocabularies, tools and behaviours specific to a given community. 

The generic profile has now been registered with the Library of Congress. A content model specific sub-profile for jurnals is currently being reviewed by the METS community and work is proceeding on models for mixed media and audio.

Registered profiles

Australian METS Profile 1.0

Australian METS Journal Profile 1.0

Australian METS Conference Profile 1.0

Related documents

David Pearson et al, Report of the METS Profile Development Project, (APSR, 2007), (viewed 22 Jan 2008).

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