The Dublin Core Metadata Intiative (DCMI) have released their Dublin Core Qualifiers recommendation, which provides enhanced granularity over their current metadata element set.

The DCMI is an open forum working to develop interoperable online metadata standards. Best known for their core element set, DCMI also has a variety of working groups addressing both general and domain specific applications of online metadata.

DCMI's press release explains the purpose of the new qualifiers:

The DC Qualifiers improve interpretation of metadata values and can be easily recorded or transferred into HTML, XML, RDF or relational databases.

Further reading:

• DCMES Qualifiers
• Dublin Core Element Set
• Recording qualified Dublin Core metadata in HTML