C: Format

Definition: The physical or digital manifestation of the resource.

Obligation: Optional. Not used for an agency or service.

What is this element?

Use the Format element to describe the physical or digital characteristics of the medium.

This information allows people to select, or ignore, items in particular formats from their search results. For example, a user may wish to find mpeg videos, or ignore formats that their systems cannot display. Some search tools can make use of Format to allow a search to be restricted to resources of a particular format. For digital resources, the refinement "extent" can also be useful to searchers as it gives an indication of how long a download might take.

When describing physical characteristics dimensions (height, width, depth) and weight can be given. Use standard abbreviations and a comma and space as punctuation.

Format and other elements

Format describes how the content is manifested, Type categorises the content.

When describing a service, format describes how it is presented. The service channel(s) through which a service is delivered should be described using Availability.

Repetition

For online versions of the same document, e.g. PDF and HTML versions, you may opt to create one metadata record and repeat Format. Where there are physical and digital versions, create separate metadata and use the Relation element to link these.

Qualifiers

Refinements

There are two, optional, refinements for Format that should be used when they make the meaning of the information given clearer.

• Extent - the physical dimensions, file size or duration of the resource. For example, 30MB or 25 pages. Electronic file sizes are described in bytes, usually kilobytes (KB) or megabytes (MB).
• Medium - the material or physical carrier of the resource, for example CD-ROM.

Controlled Vocabularies

Recommended best practice is to select a value from a controlled values list, for example, values for electronic resources should be selected from the Internet Media Types (IMT) list of terms, see Appendix 5.

Encoding schemes

Recommended best practice is to follow the appropriate standard encoding scheme for the vocabulary chosen.

Examples of schemas are:

• Internet Media Types (IMT) from the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority.
  Choose the IMT value and if the format is application specific (i.e. a proprietary format, such as Microsoft Excel), add the version, e.g. "application/msword 97". A selection of commonly used values is listed in Appendix 5.
• ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) based resource. Where the ISO standard defines a single format, give the ISO standard number as the value. For example, see the examples below for a reference to ISO 23950 : 1998 Information and documentation -- Information retrieval (Z39.50) -- Application service definition and protocol specification.
  
  Where the ISO standard defines multiple standards, e.g. ISO 216 : 1975 for A and B series paper sizes, then give the ISO standard reference as the scheme, and the specific standard as the value.

If an agency chooses another standard scheme for Format, the scheme name should be encoded in the element value and the NZGLS maintenance agency (Archives New Zealand) notified.

Examples