Chief Information Officer
IC CIO Enterprise Integration & Architecture
Information Resource Metadata
Data Encoding Specifications for Information Resource Metadata
Overview
There are two IC enterprise data encoding specifications available for information resource metadata (IRM):
- The first IRM encoding specification is an XML implementation. This specification defines XML elements and attributes, associated structures and relationships, mandatory and cardinality requirements, permissible values, and constraint rules for representing electronic information resource metadata records.
- The second IRM encoding specification is an HTML implementation. This specification defines HTML meta name/content attribute pairs, mandatory and cardinality requirements, and permissible values for representing information resource metadata within an HTML page posted on Intelink. This specification has been in use on Intelink for many years and is known by different names, such as IC HTML.
WARNING: The last release of of the IRM HTML specification was on 22 July 2008. However, the specification has not been substantively updated since 7 March 2006. As such, this specification does not support the latest Controlled Access Program Coordination Office (CAPCO) Register for security markings or any of the recent IRM developments supporting ICD 501 discovery and retrieval, need-to-know access determinations, or IC production metrics. IC elements must recognize and accept the risks associated with using an outdated specification for enterprise information, which may include information that is not discoverable or accessible or even wrongly disseminated to an inappropriate consumer.
Compliance with these specifications are measured against all aspects of the technical and documentary artifacts contained within the specification release package.
The IC Chief Information Officer maintains this specification via the Data Coordination Activity (DCA) and Common Metadata Standards Tiger Team (CMSTT).
Data Encoding Specification Downloads
Current Versions:
Previous Version:
- Implementation Profile for Information Resource Metadata (XML Encoding), Version 7.0. 27 Feb 2012
- Implementation Profile for Information Resource Metadata (XML Encoding), Version 6.0 (14 Dec 2011)
- Implementation Profile for Information Resource Metadata (XML Encoding), Version 5.0 (9 Aug 2011)
- Implementation Profile for Information Resource Metadata (XML Encoding), Version 4.0 (11 Apr 2011)
- Implementation Profile for Information Resource Metadata (XML Encoding), Version 3.0 (6 Dec 2010)
- Implementation Profile for Information Resource Metadata (XML Encoding), Version 2.0 (10 Sep 2010)
Mission Requirements
The IC desires improved capabilities to allow users and systems to discover and access a wide-range of information resources throughout the enterprise regardless of format, type, location, or classification. Making information resources visible, accessible, and understandable will go a long way towards achieving this desire.
Employing a consistent “digital” description (metadata) for all information resources provides enterprise-wide discovery and processing capabilities additional levels of producer-generated summary information that can be used to, among other functions:
- Analyze basic descriptive information across information resources of different formats, types, locations, or classifications.
- Understand who produced the information, when it was published, and what topics are addressed.
- Generate and correlate production metrics in order to better understand collection and analytic postures.
- Further protect the information from undesired dissemination based on classification or need-to-know.
Information resource metadata is commonly incorporated directly into and exchanged with an information resource, such as document properties found within most word processing or imagery formats. Information resource metadata may also be exchanged by itself in situations when the information resource itself cannot be shared, as part of a search result set, or when two library systems are exchanging bibliographic records.
