An implied requirement of today is to provide mechanisms that store, manage and discover resources in an efficient way. This becomes a necessity for all kinds of digital resources, the number of which is increasing at an extremely rapid rate. Digital repositories are mechanisms that fulfill this requirement, provided that they utilize appropriate metadata schemata for the characterization of their content. Although generic metadata specifications (such as Dublin Core) seem to fulfill the need for documenting digital objects in general, educational resources demand a more specialized treatment and characterization.
A learning object, as per IEEE, is "any entity, digital or non-digital, that may be used for learning, education or training". This repository has a collection of specifications to provide a comprehensive suite of e-learning capabilities that enable interoperability, accessibility and reusability of digital learning objects. These specifications help in creation of well structured descriptions of learning objects. And the well structured descriptions will help facilitate the discovery, location, evaluation and usage of learning objects by students, teachers or learning systems.