Or to put it another way, prefixes are required for types with complex content rather than simple content. Another option is to include the attribute form="unqualified" on elements local to complex type definitions in the MSTL schema. Then the condition (1) is reversed: local elements will have to appear unprefixed even if the MODS/MADS elements are prefixed, e.g. <m:mads xmlns:m="http://www.loc.gov/mads/"> ... <m:address> <city>Nowhere</city> <state>Arizona</state> </m:address> </m:mads> --Andy >>> [log in to unmask] 01/24/05 5:11 PM >>> (1) within your mods or mads instances, references to elements defined in the type library will have to include a namespace prefix. (Only elements though, not datatypes, and most of the type library will be datatypes, not elements).