More about the Metadata Authority Description Schema at:
The Library of Congress’ Network Development and MARC Standards Office has developed the Metadata Authority Description Schema (MADS), an XML schema for an authority element set that may be used to provide metadata about agents (people, organizations), events, and terms (topics, geographics, genres, etc.). MADS was created to serve as a companion to the Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS). As such, MADS has a relationship to the MARC 21 Authority format, as MODS has to MARC 21 Bibliographic, but it simplifies data. Influenced by the FRBR development, MADS relates to MODS in new and useful ways. MADS is expressed using the XML schema language of the World Wide Web Consortium. The standard will be developed and maintained by the Network Development and MARC Standards Office of the Library of Congress with input from users.[Metadata Authority Description Schema (MADS)]