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- Creating a "loop" of transformations. The beginning of the loop is getting input in some format, the end is the output in a different format.
- A shortcut from the beginning to the end of the loop can be taken by using a simple XSLT transform between the two formats. For some, simpler, transformations, this may work. But, XSLT is a structural, syntactical transform only. It does not handle the semantics of the structures it is dealing with. Is the //description// the same as an //abstract//? Using XSLT only also limits in that formats cannot be chained together - you lose a significant amount of meaning when going from MARC to DC to LOM to GEM in a chain.
- By going through the loop, some structural transforms are taken as well as semantic transforms within the 'interoperable core'.
- The interoperable core is a set of "semantic maps" that acts as a middle-man for all external formats to map to. Once an external format, such as MARC-XML, is mapped to the interoperable core, the data can be output in any form compatible with the interoperable core [img, p.4].