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In the METS schema documentation I found this comment about GROUPID: "Two metadata sections with the same GROUPID value are to be considered part of the same group. This facility might be used, for example, to group changed versions of the same metadata if previous versions are maintained in a file for tracking purposes" I was trying to take advantage of this by having two dmdSec to represent the original and revised versions of the DC metadata for a given object and linking them to each other with the GROUPID. That was fine until I got to the structMap and wanted to make the <div> point at the set of DC metadata versions, either by ID or GROUPID. As <div> has no GROUPID attribute, that didn't work. Pointing with IDs isn't great because I would have to point to one or all of the IDs and not the group as such. Ideally, I would like to be able to version the <dmdSec> without touching other parts of the METS record. This isn't as much of a problem for pointing from a <div> to <admSec> because the subelements of <admSec> can be repeated and pointed at via the single ADMID attribute. As long as I use on admSec to contain all the versions of only one e.g., <techMD> block, I can point nicely with the ID. This suggests to me that perhaps <dmdSec> needs to be a wrapper with a repeatable unit inside <dmdSec> just as <techMD> et al are repeatable inside <admSec>. That would better support explicit versioning. Something like this, perhaps: <dmdSec ID="dmd1"> <descMD><mdWrap/></descMD> <descMD><mdWrap/></descMD> <descMD><mdWrap/></descMD> <dmdSec> <amdSec ID="amd1"> <techMD><mdWrap/></techMD> <techMD><mdWrap/></techMD> <techMD><mdWrap/></techMD> ... <strucMap> <div DMDID="dmd1" ADMID="amd1"> ... Is there a recommend way to manage versioning of <dmSec> within the existing METS syntax? Or would it be better to try to maintain versions within a METS file and use external versioning of the entire METS record instead? That is a serious alternative, not just me trying to be difficult (grin). Evan Owens ========================================== Evan Owens ([log in to unmask]) Chief Technology Officer Ithaka Electronic-Archiving Initiative 228 Alexander Street Princeton, NJ 08540-7102 Phone: 609 258-8230 Fax: 609 258-5778 ==========================================