Dublin core standard (DCS)

The Dublin Core Standard(DCS) is an internationally used meta- data format with which objects are identified on the Internet. With the Dublin Core Standard, which was designed by the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI), documents and objects can be described with defined conventions and thus be found more quickly on the Internet. The Dublin Core metaformat uses 15 descriptive elements, called core elements, with which objects are assigned certain properties.

The 15 core elements are in turn subdivided into additional fields. One of the core elements is the identification of the object. In this core field, the ISBN numbers or ISSN numbers known from publishing can be entered, the Internet address of the document or the Uniform Resource Name( URN) with which the documents are uniquely identified. For the technical data, core fields are available for the data formats and the language. There are further core fields for the title of the document, for a short description of the content and for keywording. In addition, there are core fields for the authors and their rights, for other persons who were involved in the document, for the publisher and for the person who holds the rights and provides the specifications for the rights and their marketing.

The cross-linking area is determined by Core elements for the document source, the relationships of the document to other documents, and the target audience, and the life cycle is determined by the date specification according to the internationally standardized format for date and time specification in ISO 8601.

The Dublin Core format should also be used for search engine optimization, as it has an influence on search enginerankings.