The JISC IE Metadata Schema Registry (IEMSR) project is funded by JISC through its Shared Services Programme. The IEMSR project is developing a metadata schema registry as a pilot shared service within the JISC Information Environment.

Metadata schema registries enable the publication, navigation and sharing of information about metadata. The IEMSR will act as the primary source for authoritative information about metadata schemas recommended by the JISC IE Standards framework.

Metadata within the JISC IE is based largely on two key standards: the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (DCMES) and the IEEE Learning Object Metadata (LOM) standard. The IEMSR will provide the JISC IE with a single point of referral for recommended schemas. It will allow various initiatives within the JISC IE to publish "application profiles" of these standards in a common registry, making them available to others. This provides a concrete way of encouraging sensible uniformity alongside necessary divergence. It helps avoid unnecessary duplication of effort, and supports sharing of common approaches.

The IEMSR project will build on the work of previous projects which have explored provision of information about metadata at the level of data elements, element sets or application profiles. The MEG Registry project, funded by JISC and Becta in 2002, developed an RDF-based registry and schema creation tool. The project will re-engineer the MEG software to accommodate the IEEE LOM, supporting ongoing cooperation between the Dublin Core and IEEE LOM standardisation communities.