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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 MARCXML, is mapped to the interoperable core, the data can be output in any form compatible with the interoperable core [img, p.4].