What is “Dublin Core”?
The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative is an open-source movement that standardizes data for digital artifacts/objects.
Basics
The Dublin Core standard includes two levels: Simple and Qualified. Simple DC is comprised 15 elements. Qualified DC is more complex, include three additional elements and a group of qualifiers, so will not be covered here.
Some tags from Simple DC standard:
- title
- creator
- subject
- description
- and so on…
Let’s review the meta tags that comprise Simple Dublin Core:
Tags
Before you start, take note of a few tips: if you click in any part of the code box, the text will automatically be selected for you – just need to copy, not to select. If you have some doubt about tag description, click in the title of the tag, you’ll be redirected to a new page contain a detailed information about this tag.
Read about all tags and the descriptions (the hyperlinks lead you to the documentation):
Title:
The name of your website. Similar to <title> HTML tag.
<meta name="DC.Title" content="Dublin Core Basics: the beginners guide."> Creator:
The person or organization responsible for the content.
<meta name="DC.Creator" content="Gretchen Beasley" /> Subject:
The topic covered by the content.
<meta name="DC.Subject" content="Dublin Core Meta Tags" /> Description:
Textual outline of the content. Can be the same as the content of <meta name=”description”> tag.
<meta name="DC.Description" content="Know and understand the basics of Dublin Core. Dublin Core Basics: The beginners guide." /> Publisher:
An entity (person, organization or service) responsible for making the content available.
<meta name="DC.Publisher" content="My dog" /> Contributor:
Person, organization or service that contribute to the content.
<meta name="DC.Contributor" content="Gretchen Beasley" /> Date:
A point or period of time associated with the lifecycle of content. Typically the date of when content become available. Available formats:
- YYYY-MM-DD
- YYYY-MM
- YYYY
<meta name="DC.Date" content="2014-02" /> Type:
A category for the content. A full list of Types can be found here. Following is the most used types:
- “Text”
- “Software”
- “Service”
<meta name="DC.Type" content="Text" /> Format:
How the content or resource is presented. A full list of Formats can be found here. As we are developers, the most used format is text/html.
<meta name="DC.Format" content="text/html" /> Identifier:
An unique identifier to your content. Can be a string or number generate by a formal identification system – or just a URL.
<meta name="DC.Identifier" content="http://www.mypage.com/2014/02/dublin-core-basics.html"/> Source:
Where the content originally delivered from or a resource that is related intellectually to the described content.
<meta name="DC.Source" content="http://www.mypage.com" /> Language:
In what language the content is written. You must the correct language code.
<meta name="DC.Language" content="en" /> Relation:
How the content relates to other resources for instance. Think in a chapter of a book, for example: the chapter isPartOf book. A full list of possible relations can be found here.
<meta name="DC.Relation" content="http://www.mypage.com" scheme="IsPartOf" /> Coverage:
Where the content is physically located. Coverage will typically include spatial location (place name or geographic co-ordinates), temporal period (date, date range) or jurisdiction (named administrative entity).
<meta name="DC.Coverage" content="Fairfax, Virginia" /> Rights:
Typically a Rights element will contain a rights management statement for the resource, or reference a service providing such information. Rights information often encompasses Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), Copyright, and various Property Rights.
<meta name="DC.Rights" content="Copyright 2014, XYZ. All rights reserved." />To apply what you’ve learned you must:
- Create the 15 tags that relate to your content.
- Add this tags to your HTML, inside the <HEAD> section.
P.S: If you’re lazy and don’t want create the tags by yourself, you can use this Dublin Core meta tag generator.
Miscellaneous
Keep learning
You already know the basics of Dublin Core meta tags, but what about now? Here’s some tips about what you can read and improve your knowledge:
