The international METS Editorial Board (EB) coordinates maintenance and revisions and provides guidance for the METS (Metadata and Encoding Transmission Standard) schema. We would like to invite individuals and institutions interested in METS as a format for transmissions and as metadata for the long-term management and preservation of their digital information to a conversation for both experienced implementers and those who have limited experience in implementation. METS has recently released the new major revision of METS, version 2, and the Editorial Board is continuing to gather feedback from the community and encourage open conversations about how to structure digital objects for transmission using METS. Please join members of the Editorial Board at iPres for a Birds-of-a-Feather both for current METS users and those who are interested in implementing METS at their institution in the future. The conversation will include a brief introduction to METS version 2 and its differences from METS version 1. The conversation will then move on to METS version 2 to gather feedback for what resources METS version 2 users would like to see as valuable for using the new version of METS. We also want to open up a conversation on how you as a user can aid the METS community with examples of the use of different features of METS (both version 1 and 2), helping to create a shared bank of examples and guides in the METS documentation GitHub repository for a variety of use cases. The METS EB encourages the community to inform them about their needs as users, and how we can provide support through the content on our webpage, other available resources like GitHub, and potential future tutorials and Implementation Fairs.

Summary:
This interactive roundtable explores why widely accepted digital preservation standards, such as OAIS, ISO 16363, PREMIS, and others, often remain difficult to implement in real-world settings. Using sticky-note brainstorming and facilitated discussion, participants will surface barriers, share solutions, and co-develop ideas to improve standards usability and adaptability across institutional and national contexts.

The session also serves as a forum to gather community input to inform the ongoing work of the ISO/TC 46/SC 11 ad hoc group on digital preservation, which is examining the applicability and relevance of core standards in light of contemporary challenges. Insights from this session will be shared with the group to influence future direction and development.

Themes:

Journey – Examining the path from abstract standards to real-world implementation

Encounter – Highlighting obstacles faced by institutions of varying size and resources

Connect – Linking practitioners and standard-setters in a shared conversation

2 facilitators