Metadata Elements Arrangements and Descriptions of geographic maps in the Iranian geographic centers, archives, libraries and museums vis-a-vis the international standards of description

This paper reports metadata elements arrangements and descriptions of geographic maps in the Iranian geographic centers, archives, libraries.
Worksheets of 9 organizations were examined and 13 specialists were interviewed. Also, 6 information sources with links to geographic maps were consulted.
Findings: Overall, 209 metadata elements were identified for the organization of maps, of which 59 were found in the worksheets, 198 in standards, and 25 in the information resource. Twenty elements were shared by them. The worksheet of Astan Quds Razavi’s Libraries, Museums and Document Center was the most complete one among the 9 organizations, as in addition to the normal descriptive metadata elements, it contained metadata elements for describing mathematical data.