coverage

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

Element Semantics (Definition)

The extent or scope of the content of the resource.

General

• Name:  coverage
• Label:  Coverage
• Namespace:  http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/
• Registration Authority:  Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI)
• Notes:  Coverage will typically include spatial location (a place name or geographic coordinates), temporal period (a period label, date, or date range) or jurisdiction (such as a named administrative entity). Recommended best practice is to select a value from a controlled vocabulary (for example, the Thesaurus of Geographic Names [TGN]) and that, where appropriate, named places or time periods be used in preference to numeric identifiers such as sets of coordinates or date ranges.

Best Practices

1. The coverage element is used to describe the temporal and spatial aspects of a resource. As such, the element is used as a means of describing a very specialized form of the subject or "aboutness" of the resource. Thus, while a resource about the U.S. Civil War might well carry a subject assignment of "U.S. Civil War--1861-1865", precise retrieval based on the time frame 1861-1865 might well be achieved through use of the coverage element.
2. Since the coverage element is defined as a subclass of subject, it is not an appropriate means for recording temporal or spatial information unrelated to the topicality, or "aboutness" of the resource. Thus general dates and date ranges unrelated to the topicality of the resource (e.g., dates and date ranges in the lifecycle of the resource) should use some other element such as a date element to capture such data.
3. Whether this element is used for spatial or temporal information, care should be taken to provide consistent information that can be interpreted by users. For most simple applications, where place names or coverage dates might be useful, whether the information is numeric or alphabetical may be enough to differentiate. For more complex applications, consideration should be given to additional qualification.

Metadata Encodings Examples

• Resource Description Framework (RDF/XML)
  

  Example 1:
  
  <?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:coverage xml:lang='en'>
      Springfield (USA, Pennsylvania, Delaware County)
      </dc:coverage>
  </rdf:Description>
  </rdf:RDF>
  
  Example 2:
  
  <?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:coverage xml:lang='en'>
      U.S. Civil War, 1861-1865
      </dc:coverage>
  </rdf:Description>
  </rdf:RDF>

• XML (Tags & Attributes)
  

  Example 1:
  
  <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
  <record xmlns:dc='http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/'>
  <dc:coverage xml:lang='en'>
      Springfield (USA, Pennsylvania, Delaware County)
  </dc:coverage>
  </record>
  
  Example 2:
  
  <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
  <record xmlns:dc='http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/'>
  <dc:coverage xml:lang='en'>
      U.S. Civil War, 1861-1865
  </dc:coverage>
  </record>

• Crosswalks
  IEEE LOM: 1.7:General.Coverage
  MARC: 500$a