contributor

• Obligation:  See Application Profiles
• Occurrence:  See Application Profiles
• Conditions:  See Application Profiles
• Scheme:  See Application Profiles

Element Semantics (Definition)

An entity responsible for making contributions to the content of the resource.

General

• Name:  contributor
• Label:  Contributor
• Namespace:  http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/
• Registration Authority:  Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI)
• Notes:  Examples of a Contributor include a person, an organization, or a service. Typically, the name of a Contributor should be used to indicate the entity.

Best Practices

1. The Contributor element is intended to contain the names of entities making contributions to the intellectual content of the resource being described whose roles are lesser than those of principle authors/creators. Thus, the creator of an index to a work created by a different author would be considered a contributor to the resource.

   The cataloger must look carefully at the degree of the contribution and not merely at the role. For example, an illustrator that participates equally with an author in creating an illustrated work might well be included in the metadata through the Creator element and not the Contributor element.

2. If a resource has more than one contributor, the Contributor element should be repeated--once for each contributor.
3. Personal names should be listed surname or family name first, followed by forename or given name. When in doubt, give the name as it appears, and do not invert.
4. In the case of organizations where there is clearly a hierarchy present, list the parts of the hierarchy from largest to smallest, separated by full stops (periods). If it is not clear whether there is a hierarchy present, or unclear which is the larger or smaller portion of the body, give the name as it appears in the entity being described.

   In the case of a long group or organization name that includes subordinate units, sometimes the name can be shortened by eliminating some of the hierarchical parts not considered necessary for uniquely identifying the body in question. For example, to enter the CIA as a contributor, use the form of the name as given in Library of Congress Authorities File (United States. Central Intelligence Agency) instead of the full hierarchical name (United States. National Security Council. Central Intelligence Agency).

Metadata Encodings Examples

• Resource Description Framework (RDF/XML)
  

  <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
  <rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf='http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#'
      xmlns:dc='http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/'>
  <rdf:Description>
      <dc:contributor>
      Shakespeare, William
      </dc:contributor>
  </rdf:Description>
  </rdf:RDF>

• XML (Tags & Attributes)
  

  <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
  <record xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
  <dc:contributor>
      Shakespeare, William
  </dc:contributor>
  </record>

• Crosswalks
  IEEE LOM: 2.3.2:LifeCycle.Contribute.Entity (with the type of contribution specified in 2.3.1:LifeCycle.Contribute.Role)
  MARC: 720 ##$a (Added Entry--Uncontrolled Name/Name) with $e=collaborator (or other term used as value of role qualifier)