Overview
ISO/IEC 19788-3:2011/Amd 1:2016 is Amendment 1 to Part 3 of the ISO/IEC 19788 series - the MLR (Metadata for Learning Resources) Basic Application Profile. This amendment updates the Basic application profile used to describe learning and educational resources, clarifies data element group specifications (DEGS), refines Data Element Specifications (DESs) such as title, creator, subject, description, publisher, contributor, and date, and - importantly - adds a new “Best practice(s)” attribute to DES entries to provide optional informative guidance.
Key Topics and Technical Requirements
- Application profile metadata: Defines an AP Identifier and the MLR Basic Application Profile (v2) used to promote basic interoperability among catalogs and repositories.
- Data Element Group Specifications (DEGS): Amendment adds and updates DEGS identifiers for Learning resources and Persons, specifying element presence, repeatability and ordering semantics.
- Data Element Specifications (DES): Each DES includes attributes such as property name, definition, linguistic indicator, domain, codomain (e.g., literal MLR String), content value rules, examples and notes.
- Literal vs non-literal values: The amendment clarifies use of literal string DESs and points to non-literal alternatives (e.g., recommended DES1600 instead of DES0200 for certain creator metadata).
- Conditional rules and constraints: Includes condition codes (C0001–C0003) that require at least one of a set of properties be present (for example, title or description), and rules preventing use of duplicate properties from different DESs in the same record.
- Dublin Core alignment: Many DESs refine or are subsets of Dublin Core elements (ISO 15836:2009) and map to ISO/IEC 19788-2 elements.
- Best practice attribute: New optional textual guidance to help implementers choose preferred DES alternatives and approaches.
Practical Applications - Who Uses It
- Metadata specialists and cataloguers building interoperable descriptions for learning resources.
- LMS and digital repository developers implementing searchable, shareable metadata schemas.
- Educational publishers and content providers ensuring consistent discovery and reuse of resources.
- Standards implementers and integrators mapping MLR to Dublin Core and other schemas for harvesting, APIs or cross-catalog interoperability.
- Libraries and institutional repositories that need consistent descriptive metadata for learning objects.
Related Standards
- ISO/IEC 19788-1 - Framework for Metadata for Learning Resources
- ISO/IEC 19788-2 - Dublin Core elements mapping for MLR
- ISO 15836:2009 - Dublin Core Metadata Element Set
- Developed by ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 36 (Information technology for learning, education and training)
For normative text, exact codes and full implementation rules consult the ISO copy of ISO/IEC 19788-3:2011 and Amendment 1 (2016) available from the ISO website.