North Central Research Station

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North Central Research Station
1992 Folwell Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55108

(651) 649-5000

Introduction to metadata

Definition
Government activities
Biological Data Profile (NBII)
Future developments
Supplementary documents
Links to other sites of interest

Definition

Metadata are data about data. Metadata are used to answer such questions as what data were collected, how they were collected, why they were collected, how reliable they are, and what issues should be accounted for when working with them. Metadata also describe how to get the data, what tools are needed to work with the data, and other related matters. The most common objectives of metadata collection are to (1) provide internal data documentation, (2) enhance current data sharing, and (3) enhance the future utility of data archives.

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Government activities

Since 1995, the Federal Government has been required to produce metadata for geospatial data it produces, and make those data available to the public (Executive Order 12906). There are, of course, many possible approaches to documenting a data set. The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) was created to deal with the Government’s needs in this area. The FGDC published its first metadata standard in 1995; use of the FGDC Standard is mandatory for the Federal Government. Two benefits of the formal standard are consistency of (1) documentation elements and (2) terminology. The known structure also lends itself to automated searching of candidate data sets based on their metadata characteristics. To take advantage of this, the FGDC operates the National Spatial Data Clearinghouse. The Clearinghouse provides a way to conduct searches against the metadata and find what spatial data sets the Government has created (although the data sets themselves are not housed in the Clearinghouse). Forest Service policy mandates the use of the FGDC metadata standard for all spatial data sets “collected, acquired, generated, held, and disseminated by the Forest Service” (draft FSH 6609.15 Chapter 40). Forest Service spatial data sets are also expected to be made available through the Clearinghouse. An example of the kinds of information included in FGDC-compliant metadata is this description of a volcano atlas data set, produced by ESRI.

The FGDC released a new version of its Standard in 1998. This is the version that the Forest Service has adopted for its spatial data. One of the new capabilities of the revised Standard was explicit mechanisms for adding collections of elements, called “profiles”.

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FGDC Biological Data Profile Standard

A significant portion of biological research either has no a spatial component or has substantial aspects besides the purely spatial. The National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII), part of the Biological Resources Division of the US Geological Survey, was charged with developing a metadata standard covering such research. To that end, NBII consulted with the biological research community and enhanced the FGDC Standard. NBII’s enhancements have been approved by the FGDC as a profile. While the profile is specifically designed for biological data, it is defined broadly enough to be applicable to other scientific research. The 1999 version of the NBII Standard has been adopted by the Station for its data publishing program. Formally, the Station is using the FGDC Biological Data Profile of the Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata, 1999.

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Future developments

The FGDC has approved a number of other standards not included in the spatial metadata standard, and more are under consideration. Areas they have standards for include cadastral data, classification of wetlands and deep water habitats, vegetation classification, soils, and digital orthoimagery. Areas they are working on include hydrography, shoreline data, remote sensing, biological taxonomy and nomenclature, address content, geologic data, floristic levels of vegetation classification, and riparian mapping. We will try to keep up to date on these, and incorporate them into our data collection and documentation structures as appropriate.

There is ongoing work on an international metadata standard for geospatial data. The FGDC is actively involved with this effort, and some changes to the FGDC Standard are likely after adoption of the international standard.

There are also other metadata standards under development. The most interesting at the time of this writing is the Data Documentation Initiative for social science data. This project is attempting to create a metadata standard for use in the US and Europe. Although the Station is not supporting this standard at the moment, the elements overlap substantially with the NBII elements. The Station may support it in the future as a way to maximize ease of access to data sets for their respective communities of use.

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Supplementary documents

These documents provide supplementary information for metadata creation. They are in PDF format, and can be downloaded by right-clicking on the link and selecting Save Target As.

FGDC Geospatial Metadata Workbook (from FGDC)

NBII Metadata Workbook (from NBII)

Spatial Data Transfer Standard, Part 1, containing:

“Spatial Data Concepts” — see Chapter 2 of Part 1 in Department of Commerce, 1992, Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS) (Federal Information Processing Standard 173): Washington, Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology

“Spatial Data Quality” — see chapter 3 of part 1 in Department of Commerce, 1992, Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS) (Federal Information Processing Standard 173): Washington, Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology)