VRA

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Standard: VRA Core provides a simple set of elements for describing visual cultural works (e.g. art works, artifacts, architecture) and images of those works. Early versions of VRA Core were influenced by the extensive CDWA standard, but it has since been much influenced by the Dublin Core and, more recently, by the Cataloguing Cultural Objects (CCO) content standard. Mappings are available from VRA Core 3.0 to both Dublin Core and CDWA, and between VRA Core 4.0 and CCO. Up until version 3.0, VRA Core made a distinction between a record describing an original 'Work' (e.g. a painting) and a record describing an 'Image' documenting that work (e.g. a slide or digital image of the painting). In version 3.0 the same 17 elements were used to describe both Work and Image records, but different values were used depending on which was being described. VRA Core 4.0 (the current version, released in 2007) has introduced a third record type ('Collection'). It has also made significant changes to some of the elements and provided an XML schema. The VRA Core 4.0 schema is available in 'Unrestricted' and 'Restricted' versions, with the latter constraining the values of many attributes/elements to controlled lists. The VRA Core 4.0 schema has been formally endorsed by the METS Editorial Board for use within METS.
Standardisation: VRA Core was developed and is maintained by the Data Standard Committee (DSC) of the US-based Visual Resources Association (VRA).

Versions: Previous versions include VRA Core 1.0 (1996), 2.0 (1997), and 3.0 (2000). Version 4.0 was beta tested in late 2005 and formally released in 2007.

Risk Assessment: VRA Core 3.0 has been implemented in many different ways because it invited extension and did not prescribe any particular data structure or encoding. VRA Core 4.0 provides a formal XML encoding, but it remains to be seen how this will be adopted and developed.

Take-up Elsewhere: VRA Core 3.0 is widely used as the basis for metadata for art image collections. The level of take-up of (or migration to) VRA Core 4.0 is currently uncertain.