Building A Federated Digital Library: Approaches to Metadata Integration

Two approaches to integrating metadata in federated digital environments are discussed, one based on semantic web methodologies, the other on XML architectures. It is argued that it is possible to emulate the semantic flexibility of the semantic web within XML-based schemas by using linkages to controlled vocabularies using Universal Resource Identifiers (URIs). The advantages of retaining XML as the basis of digital library metadata remain clear, particularly when semantic linkages of this type can be integrated into XML architectures.