Darwin Core: Most important Metadata Scheme Ever?

For the uninitiated metadata is data about data. Obviously, it is something libraries make a great deal of use of in their catalogs. Metadata is how libraries keep track of resources. The resources are data, the catalog and surrogates are the data about data. Much has been written about standards such as Dublin Core, MODS, and VRA Core, but Darwin Core, while not inherently library centric, is perhaps the most interesting and important metadata scheme as it has to do with keeping track of life on Earth.

According to Wieczorek et al. (2012), “Darwin Core is a standard for sharing data about biodiversity-the occurrence of life on earth and its associations with the environment” (Introduction section, para. 4) . Darwin Core is mainly based around taxa: the plural form of taxon and this simply means a taxonomic group.

What is hopefully obvious is that biodiversity is an important issue. While some like to dispute the occurrence of climate change, the evidence of its existence is overwhelming. As climate change progresses, more and more species are lost. Rather than being a surrogate for a book or image, Darwin Core records are surrogates for instances of organisms in specific locations.

One thing that is particularly fitting about Darwin Core is that other standards are more interested in dates like the date a resource was created; somewhat humorously and fittingly, Darwin Core (much like the eponymous naturalist it takes its name from) seems to accord no special place to creation .

Darwin Core demonstrates that metadata goes beyond libraries, and can be used to keep track of some very important things. By the looks of it, it will become more relevant and used until a time when there is very little biodiversity left to speak of…

Works Cited:

Wieczorek, J. Bloom, D. Guralnick, R. Blum, S. Döring, M. Giovanni, R. et al. (2012) . Darwin Core: An evolving community-developed biodiversity data standard. PLoS ONE, 7. doi:e29715. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0029715