The primary purpose of ISO/IEC 19788 is to specify metadata elements and their attributes for the description of learning resources. This includes the rules governing the identification of data elements and the specification of their attributes.

ISO/IEC 19788 provides data elements for the description of learning resources and resources directly related to learning resources.

This part of ISO/IEC 19788 is designed to help implementers with a starting point for adopting ISO/IEC 19788, defining an application profile that specifies, through adding constraints to the use of some data elements, how the ISO/IEC 19788‑2 element set can be used.