OSU Library Metadata: A Guideline to Best Practices: Publisher

Label: Publisher; Digital Publisher
Maps to Dublin Core Element Name: Publisher
Maps to MARC field (in World Cat): 264
Mandatory: Optional, but recommended
Repeatable: Yes
Qualifiers:
           Refinements: None
           Schemes: None

Dublin Core Definition: An entity responsible for making the resource available.

Dublin Core Comment: Examples of a Publisher include a person, an organization, or a service. Typically, the name of a publisher should be used to indicate the entity.

An entity that made the resource available. For digital objects, Publisher is the entity that created the digital resource. When the entity is the library department responsible for creating the digital resource, a locally controlled name will be used. Publishers can be a corporate body, publishing house, museum, historical society, university, project, repository, etc.

1. In the case of an object that existed in another form before being digitized, the publisher of this earlier form may be entered in the Source element. If a publisher of an earlier form is considered important to users and therefore for resource discovery, include it in a Contributor element.
2. When in doubt about whether an entity is a publisher or a creator, enter a corporate entity as Publisher and a personal name as Creator.
3. Omit initial articles in publisher names.
4. Enter group or organization names in full, direct form. In the case of a hierarchy, list the parts from the largest to smallest, separated by periods.
5. In the case of a long group or organization name that includes subordinate units, sometimes the name can be shortened by eliminating some of the hierarchical parts not considered necessary for uniquely identifying the body in question. For example, to enter the CIA as a contributor, use the form of the name as given in Library of Congress Authorities (“United States. Central Intelligence Agency”) instead of the full hierarchical name (“United States. National Security Council. Central Intelligence Agency”).
6. If the publisher is the same as the creator, enter the name or entity in both the Publisher and Creator elements. 

Notes: The Publisher element contains information about the digital publisher. Publisher information about forms of the object from earlier stages in an object’s publishing history may be listed in elements such as Source and Contributor.

Depending upon the collection and items being described you may choose to be more detailed and use the label Digital Publisher. It will still map to Publisher (dc.publisher).

Digital Resources and Discovery Services

•  Oklahoma State University. Library. Digital Resources and Discovery Services

Oral History

• Oklahoma State University. Library. Oklahoma Oral History Research Program

Special Collections and University Archives

• Oklahoma State University. Library. Special Collections and University Archives
• Oklahoma State University. Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. Cooperative Extension Service