Referring to external metadata

The metadata reference element <mdRef> is used to provide a pointer to metadata that resides outside the METS document.

NOTE: <mdRef> is an empty element. The location of the external metadata must be specified in the LOCREF attribute and can be supplemented by the XPTR attribute, if needed.

Metadata reference – example

The following example demonstrates the use of the <mdRef> element.

<mdSec>
  <md ID="DMD1" USE="DESCRIPTIVE">
    <mdRef MIMETYPE="text/xml" LABEL="MODS record" LOCTYPE="URN"
      MDTYPE="MODS" LOCREF="urn:x-nyu:fales1735"/>
  </md>
</mdSec>

See also: Linking to external resources from METS