A study of metadata standards

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the metadata standards available worldwide and to study those in detail. The paper presents the detailed analysis of these standards. Design/methodology/approach The methodology adopted was investigative. Data were collected through e‐mails and visiting the relevant web sites. Findings No one existing metadata standard covers all the required facets. In such cases, an implementer is require to create a new scheme with the desired metadata elements but such schemes create a number of issues in interoperating. Another solution to this problem is to create extra elements to fill gaps in the coverage. Interoperability problems can be overcome by publications of new elements declaring their definitions, formats and so on. Originality/value Few studies have compared some of the well‐known standards. This study gives a detailed analysis of the metadata standards available worldwide and it will help in comparing and adopting the required standard for the repositories.