The MAGIC Metadata Triage Training Workshop Circuit - Winter / Spring, 2007-8

Establishing your minimum requirements…

Mark DuewellMAGIC Project Coordinatorduewellm@missouri.edu(573) 882-6734

Tell us what’s important to your success!

TEAMWORK

Agenda

1. Emphasize the reasons to maintain metadata.

2. Discuss establishing your minimum metadata requirements.

3. Helping you create a metadata program.

4. Helping us create state repositories.

5. Conclusion

Reasons to Maintain Metadata

• Metadata helps people who use geospatial data find the data they need and determine how best to use it.

• Metadata supports producers in locating and using their own data resources and data consumers in locating and using data resources produced by others.

Reasons to Maintain Metadata

• As personnel change in an organization, institutional knowledge leaves the organization. Undocumented data can lose their value. Subsequent workers may have little understanding of the uses for a data base and may find they can't trust results generated.

• Lack of knowledge about other organizations' data

can lead to duplication of effort. It may seem burdensome to add the cost of generating metadata to the cost of data collection, but in the long run metadata are worth it.

Reasons to Maintain Metadata

Metadata also supports Data Management requirements to:

– preserve the data history so that it can be re-used or adapted,

– assess the age and character of data holdings to determine which data should be maintained, updated, or deleted,

– instill data accountability by requiring you to state what you know about the data and realizing what you don’t, but should, know about your data

– limit data liability by explicitly designating the effective and administrative limits of use of the data.

Reasons to Maintain Metadata

Metadata also supports Project Management requirements to:

– plan and document the data types and content needed to support the project

– monitor data development by regular review of the process steps completed and recorded within the metadata

– provide all project participants a common language of attributes and process methods and a place to record and share their progress

– access the lineage and content of outsourced data production by requiring robust metadata as a contract deliverable.

Status of Metadata in the MAGIC region…

• The quality of metadata varies greatly across the region.

• Shareable data requires satisfactory metadata maintenance.

• Although most producers are willing to share what they have.– Facilities to share metadata vary– There is some duplication of efforts

MAGIC’s interests and role…

• Coordinate GIS efforts in the region.– Develop data and standards where there are significant

economies of scale and regional interest.– Encourage cooperation between data producers and

users.

• Promulgate standards to support data sharing. – MAGIC encourages the operation and maintenance of

state metadata repositories.

• Provide assistance in developing local level data.– Through education and outreach in the form of

workshops and symposiums.

FGDC Standard

• FGDC Standard– “Standards facilitate the development, sharing, and

use of geospatial data. The FGDC develops geospatial data standards for implementing the NSDI, in consultation and cooperation with State, local, and tribal governments, the private sector and academic community, and, to the extent feasible, the international community.”

– This results in a standard that can be used by everyone.

Promulgate standards to support sharing

FGDC Standard – Minimum requirements…

• Adoption of a Subset– The standard does not require that all fields be completed.– Every FGDC field is defined as either:

• Mandatory - These elements must be provided. • Mandatory if applicable - These elements must be provided if the

data set exhibits the characteristic defined by the element. • Optional - These elements provided at the discretion of the data set

producer.

• States in the MAGIC region may have different requirements – but all utilize the FGDC Content Standard as a basic building block – their required metadata contains all of the “Mandatory” and may contain some of the other fields

• Any state standard should be viewed is a minimum standard. You may have reason to maintain other fields.

Promulgate standards to support sharing

Implementing a Metadata Program

• Get support and “buy-in” from your supervisors and policy makers.

• Decide on your own processes, standards, and minimums.– No data set complete until metadata written.– Adopt it as policy– Make it a formal duty of a position

• Give every user the proper training.– Hold occasional refresher courses

• Use the proper tools.

Provide assistance in developing metadata

Choosing tools for your shop…

• ESRI ArcCatalog contains functions to maintain the metadata for our ESRI format data.

• There are a variety of free (ex. XMLInput) and commercial software tools available to support metadata development.

• These tools offer a range of features and capabilities.

Provide assistance in developing metadata

Choosing Tools for Your ShopWhen evaluating the right tool consider the following:

• Does your GIS software provide an internal data/metadata management utility that captures properties like extent, projection, attribute labels, etc.?

• Do you need a tool that supports one or more CSDGM Profiles or Extensions?

• Do you need to document data resource beyond those managed within your GIS?

• Do you need a tool that is easily distributed to partners? • What features are most important to you?

– auto-capture of information – bundling of metadata with data – creation and use of templates – easy to use interface– robust help systems and tutorials

Provide assistance in developing metadata

Three options for tools to manage metadata in your shop…

• Use ESRI based tools

• Custom Programs

• Use both

ESRI Based (ArcCatalog)• Advantages

– The Metadata tab in ArcCatalog allows users to complete FGDC compliant metadata and can harvest metadata elements directly from spatial datasets.

– By default, when you try to view an item's metadata, ArcCatalog will create it for you automatically if it doesn’t already exist.

– It will add many of the item's properties to the metadata.– Metadata becomes part of the item itself. It is automatically moved,

copied, and deleted along with the item.

• Disadvantages– It requires ESRI ArcCatalog.– It is difficult to use for data that is not maintained in ArcCatalog.– The sharing of metadata is easy if used against an ArcIMS site but

more difficult for other sources of metadata.

Custom Program

• Advantages– It doesn’t require ESRI ArcCatalog.– It can easily be used for data that is not maintained in

ArcCatalog.– The sharing of metadata would use standard file formats

(xml/html) and be easy to share.– Could accommodate ESRI metadata also via a manual

import/export process.– Would not preclude the use of ArcCatalog.

• Disadvantages– Will require a manual import/export process to interface with

ESRI systems.– Will require more manual procedures to share data.– Metadata must be maintained separately from the item itself.

Developing minimum requirements…

What tool will provide for the best maintenance of your data?

• ESRI or custom program? Or both?• Questions for discussion.

– What software do you use to create/edit/maintain spatial data?

– Does the technical expertise exist to manually maintain metadata?

– Do you support other offices who might want to present metadata (i.e. registrars, assessors, etc.)

– Would you want an online tool to maintain metadata?

– Cost shouldn’t be a factor – but staff time almost always is – which is easiest/ most time effective?

Developing minimum requirements…

Tell us what’s important to your success!

TEAMWORK