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This means that Islandora’s Solution Pack Content Models come with define a Datastream defined that allows for additional granularity and is customized to the needs of a particular data type or subject area. This also means that the Solution Packs come with a form that presents users with a richer metadata schema than Dublin Core. When metadata is created using the this ingest form, an .xslt is called by the Content model. This .xslt file Model to transforms the richer metadata schema into the default Dublin Core datastream, and stores both the richer XML based Descriptive Metadata and the Dublin Core Metadatain Metadata in the object. In this way, Islandora preserves a common metadata stream (in Dublin Core format) that can be useful for searching and retrieving metadata objects across the repository, as well as a more granular metadata stream, say, MODS or Darwin Core, that describes the object as is most appropriate for the subject area or discipline to which the object refersrelates. When Whenever a metadata field is updated through the Islandora interface, the .xslt is called to perform the transformation again, making sure that the Dublin Core datastream is kept consistent with the data in the richer Metadata Datastream.
In the end, the architecture surrounding descriptive metadata in Islandora is designed to provide out-of-the box metadata creation, but also customization. New forms can be created and affiliated associated with Content Models via the Islandora interface. Content Models can be written to define any number of metadata datastreams, and to call .xslt files to create new datastreams on ingest, and to update datastreams when metadata is edited. The system leverages the external community by taking advantage of .xslts that are commonly produced to serve similar use-cases for other organizations.
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