A proposed new version of the METS XML schema (version 1.3) has been drafted by the METS Editorial Board and is now available at the METS web site at http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/version13/mets.v1-3.xsd. The Editorial Board would like to invite the METS community to review the new version of the METS schema and send any comments they may to the Editorial Board. The new version of METS makes the following changes: 1. The opening comments describing the OBJID attribute on the root METS element have been changed to read as follows: "2. OBJID: a primary identifier assigned to the METS object." 2. "MODS" has been added to the available controlled vocabulary in MDTYPEs. 3. The attributes on the element have been altered so that instead of a single CHECKSUM attribute, it now has both CHECKSUM and CHECKSUMTYPE, where CHECKSUMTYPE is a controlled vocabulary as follows: HAVAL, MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512, TIGER, WHIRLPOOL 4. The BehaviorSec element definition has been altered to make it recursive, and add a new behavior element has been added to wrap mechanism and interfaceDef elements. This allows you to establish a hierarchical grouping of behaviors similar to that available in the FileSec. The METS Editorial Board is now calling for comments on this proposed schema. Comments may either be publicly posted to the METS mailing list at [log in to unmask] or, sent privately to Jerome McDonough, the METS Editorial Board Chair, at [log in to unmask] Jerome McDonough Digital Library Development Team Leader Elmer Bobst Library, New York University 70 Washington Square South, 8th Floor New York, NY 10012 [log in to unmask] (212) 998-2425