Metadata Object Description Schema: a Library of Congress XML schema for descriptive bibliographic metadata, designed as a richer alternative to Dublin Core and a more flexible alternative to MARC for library, archive, and repository contexts.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 10 Jul 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
A book record in MODS with titleInfo, names with roles (creator, editor, illustrator), publisher, language, subjects, and ISBN identifier.
Is an instance
MODS metadata embedded in the dmdSec of a METS object.

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
A MARC21 record is not MODS, though it can be converted to MODS.
Not an instance
A BibTeX entry is not MODS.

Editorial commentary

MODS provides a controlled set of elements (titleInfo, name, typeOfResource, originInfo, language, physicalDescription, abstract, subject, classification, relatedItem, identifier, location, accessCondition, recordInfo, etc.) that cover most of MARC’s expressive capacity while being more human-readable. MODS is commonly embedded within METS for digital library objects and is supported by many repository platforms as an alternative descriptive metadata format.

References

Library of Congress, 'MODS: Metadata Object Description Schema' (loc.gov/standards/mods).

Also known as

Metadata Object Description Schema

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="MODS"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/mods" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/mods",
  "name": "MODS",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/mods",
  "description": "Metadata Object Description Schema: a Library of Congress XML schema for descriptive bibliographic metadata, designed as a richer alternative to Dublin Core and a more flexible alternative to MARC for library, archive, and repository contexts.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/research-info-systems#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/mods",
  "sameAs": [
    "Metadata Object Description Schema"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-07-10T02:06:20",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}

Referenced across the research world

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