(Baltimore, MD 5 March 2013) The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) announces the publication of maintenance revisions of two widely used standards: The Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (ANSI/NISO Z39.85-2012) and The Standardized Usage Statistics Harvesting Initiative (SUSHI) Protocol (ANSI/NISO Z39.93-2013). Both standards were revised to make very minor updates. The Dublin Core standard defines fifteen metadata elements for resource description in a cross-disciplinary information environment and is used as the basis for most metadata standards in use today. The SUSHI Protocol defines an automated request and response model for the harvesting of electronic resource usage data and is required for conformance with the COUNTER Code of Practice.
“The DCMI Usage Board approved a change to the usage comment for the ‘subject’ element to eliminate some ambiguity with the ‘coverage’ element,” explains Thomas Baker, Chief Information Officer for the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative, the maintenance agency for the Dublin Core standard. “The new version of the ANSI/NISO standard corresponds to version 1.1 of the specification on the DCMI website.”
“The SUSHI Standing Committee initiated this revision of the standard to make two minor updates,” states Oliver Pesch, Chief Strategist for EBSCO Information Services and Co-chair of the SUSHI Standing Committee. “An additional error code was added and the appendix about security considerations was updated to reflect technology changes and experience gained since the initial implementation of the SUSHI protocol.”
“Standards do not drop into a black hole once they are published,” states Todd Carpenter, NISO Executive Director. “They must be supported and regularly reviewed to ensure they are kept up-to-date. Both the Dublin Core and the SUSHI standard receive ongoing oversight from their respective Maintenance Agency and Standing Committee. The maintenance revisions just published are examples of how the standards are revised to address even minor issues found during implementation.”
Both standards are available for free download from the NISO website; Dublin Core at www.niso.org/standards/z39-85-2012 and SUSHI at www.niso.org/standards/z39-93-2013/. Additional information on the use of the Dublin Core standard is available from the DCMI website at www.dublincore.org. SUSHI FAQs, schemas, and implementation information are available at www.niso.org/workrooms/sushi. More information about NISO is available on its website: www.niso.org.
