ABSTRACT
SUMMARY. With the transition from cartographic materials to spatial information the nature and amount of access data for the library field is changing. Besides bibliographic data there exists now a range of metadata, each kind for specific purposes within specific user fields. To define their relation to each other they have been put into a diagram. Through the Resource Description Framework these should all be available through a common interface for Internet-searching. To prevent confusion spatial metadata is defined. Spatial metadata introduces new elements to descriptions with new application possibilities. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678. E-mail address: getinfo@haworthpressinc.com <Website: https://www.haworthpressinc.com>;]
Jan Smits is Map Librarian at Koninklijke Bibliotheek,1 National Library of The Netherlands, P.O. Box 90.407, NL-2509 LK Den Haag, The Netherlands (e-mail: jan.smits@konbib.nl). He is President, Groupe des Cartothecaires de LIBER (GdC, European Map Curators Group) and IFLA Representative for the ICA Commission on Standards for the Transfer of Spatial Data.
