type

• Obligation:  See Application Profiles
• Occurrence:  See Application Profiles
• Conditions:  See Application Profiles
• Scheme:  Varies. See Application Profiles; see also DCMIType Vocabulary, GEM Type Vocabulary

Element Semantics (Definition)

The nature or genre of the content of the resource.

General

• Name:  type
• Label:  Resource Type
• Namespace:  http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/
• Registration Authority:  Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI)
• Notes:  Type includes terms describing general categories, functions, genres, or aggregation levels for content. Recommended best practice is to select a value from a controlled vocabulary (for example, the DCMI Type Vocabulary [DCMITYPE]). To describe the physical or digital manifestation of the resource, use the Format element.

Best Practices

1. The «type» element is intended to contain statements about the genre of resource being described.
2. The «type» element should not be used to contain genre information about resources related to the one being described. For example, if the resource being described is a collection record for a set of lesson plans (i.e., a collection-level record), it should have the value "collection" assigned to the «type» element but "lesson plan" should not be assigned since the resource itself is not actually a lesson plan.
3. The «type» element should not be used to make statements about the physical format of the resource being described.
4. Where possible, it is best to use terms taken from a controlled vocabulary.

Metadata Encodings Examples

• Resource Description Framework (RDF/XML)
  

  Example #1 (using a 'value string'):
  
  <?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:type xml:lang='en'>
      Lesson plan
      </dc:type>
  </rdf:Description>
  </rdf:RDF>
  
  Example #2 (using a 'value URI'):
  
  <?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:type rdf:resource='http://purl.org/gem/gemtype/LessonPlan'/>
  </rdf:Description>
  </rdf:RDF>

• XML (Tags & Attributes)
  

  Example #1 (using a 'value string'):
  
  <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
  <record xmlns:dc='http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/'>
  <dc:type xml:lang='en'>
      Lesson plan
  </dc:type>
  </record>
  
  Example #2 (using a 'value URI'):
  
  <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
  <record xmlns:dc='http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/'
      xmlns:dcterms='http://purl.org/dc/terms/' 
      xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance'>
  <dc:type xsi:type='dcterms:URI'>
      http://purl.org/gem/gemtype/LessonPlan
  </dc:type>
  </record>
  
  

• Crosswalks
  IEEE LOM: 5.2:Educational.LearningResourceType
  MARC: 655 #7$a (Index Term--Genre/Form) with $2=local