Standards

For the opening up of collections the KB works to a fixed infrastructure. This infrastructure makes use of open standards and proven working methods:

• For the descriptive metadata Dublin Core is used. Own elements can be necessary if the specific metadata do not occur in the Dublin Core. The descriptive metadata are stored in XML format.
• MPEG21-DIDL
• The page layout (the different zones, such as images, columns and headings) is stored with the help of a segmenting standard ALTO.
• All files will be made accessible with persistent URLs. This means that the URL does not change if the physical storage location of the file changes. For these persistent URLs, a resolver (pdf) will be used that translates each URL to the physical file location and transmits the file requested to the user.
• The indexing of the text files and of the descriptive metadata will be done by a K2 search engine of Verity.
• For search queries made from a web application, the SRU-protocol, will be used. With this the search queries can be included in a URL in a standard manner.