Workbook on Digital Private Papers > Administrative and preservation metadata > Using METS for the preservation and dissemination of digital archives
Using METS for the preservation and dissemination of digital archives
Introduction
Background to METS
In the late 1990s a digitisation initiative called the Making of America II (MOA2) Testbed Project identified categories for descriptive, structural and administrative metadata types. An XML Document Type Definition (DTD) was developed for the project. In 2001, this DTD was reviewed and revised, under the sponsorship of the Digital Library Federation; the outcome was Version 1.0 of the METS XML Schema, which inherited the broad metadata structure set out by the MOA2 project.
The Library of Congress is the maintenance agency for METS. It is governed by the METS Editorial Board, which also promotes the standard, endorses best practice and supports the METS community.
The standard has been widely adopted by institutions and projects worldwide. The METS Implementation Registry contains information about METS projects both planned, in progress and fully implemented, which have been registered with the METS Board. UK users of METS include the National Library of Wales, Oxford Digital Library and the UK Data Archive.
