PLEASE NOTE: This version has been replaced by a newer one

The current version can be found here.

Purpose and key features

containerMD is an XML Schema that details technical metadata for container digital objects. It is mainly intended to be used as an extension schema within METS or PREMIS descriptions of the same digital object, but it can also be used as a standalone file, for instance as an output format for a characterization tool. It is maintained by the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

containerMD provides the following key features:

• A description of the container file itself in a ‹container› section
• Two verbosity levels:
• 1. A non verbose mode expressing aggregated information about the entries in an ‹entriesInformation› section;
  2. A verbose mode giving a dedicated description for each entry in an ‹entry› section, with the ability to include other characterization schemes if needed.
• Extensions, that express fields specific to certain container formats. As of now, the only implemented extension is for the ARC file format, a web archive specific container file format aggregating each file harvested on the Web in a dedicated ARC record.
• Ability to include format-specific technical information for a contained file. For this purpose we re-used the PREMIS ‹mdSec› element.

In addition to ARC, we intend to define extensions for other container formats in the future: WARC, ZIP, 7ZIP... Comments on the schema can be sent to the .

Schema and documentation

• schema: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/ns/containerMD-v1.xsd
• documentation: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/containerMD-v1/documentation. Note: start with the "containerMD" root element to browse the schema more easily

Implementation guidelines and examples

Last updated: 2011, october 5th