October 31, 2000

The primary goal of the IGIAC Metadata subgroup is to provide GIS users in Idaho a collaborative knowledge base of information about making metadata.  Since all efforts in this group are provided in a voluntary basis, there is a limit of what the group can do.  However, collectively the group has come up with a great list of metadata internet links to useful information.  In addition, there is a vast knowledge base of different software and metadata making technique across the membership of the group.

Documenting GIS data can be a very painful process, however in the past year we've seen several steps that allow us to make this process easier.  One of these improvements is the new expanded capability in ESRI’s ArcInfo.  As some of you may know, ArcInfo can now internally store metadata information in the GIS coverage.  However, one thing that I just learned is that when you convert that coverage into a shape file, ArcInfo automatically transfers that metadata stored with the coverage into the a metadata file for the shape file.  It's innovations like this that will make collecting and keep track of metadata easier for people using GIS.

In the event that you would like to become a member of the GIS metadata subcommittee please feel free to email me and get on the list.

Hope every one has a  great year !

Frank Roberts
IGIAC Metadata Chairman
[email protected]

Lily Wai, INSIDE Idaho Project Director, University of Idaho

I just want to let you know that we have recently added a few new features to our website (http://inside.uidaho.edu). Hope you will take a look at our site and provide us with your input.

New features:
Contributor: We have added a new column "Contributor" to indicate whom the contributor is for each of the data listed.
Download:  We have added the size of the data before you want to download each data listed.  When you place your mouse click on the
"Download" button, the size will show up.
 "Alphabetical List" by quad names: You can download the 24K DRG data by selecting from the "Alphabetical List" we created.

New data added:
Boise National Forest data from BNF.
Land Cover Classification data from Landscape Dynamics Lab.
TIGER/Line data:  You can now download the shape files of the 1995 TIGER/Line for all counties in Idaho.  Soon, you will also be able to download county data by over two dozen themes.
Demographic maps: We have added over a dozen new maps to this site, most of them are by demographic and social characteristics.
Koppen Climate Classification data:  Bruce Godfrey created a small sample of a geodata file to show how any agency specific data can be maintained by the responsible agency but made available to all data contributors via INSIDE Idaho website.  The data is now searchable by Text search and NSDI search.

We welcome your comments on these new features and look forward to seeing you all at the IGIAC meeting.

Lily Wai, INSIDE Idaho Project Director   Phone: 208-885-6344
Professor, Head of Government Documents   Fax: 208-885-6817
University of Idaho Library (0135)        E-Mail:[email protected]
Rayburn Street                         http://www.lib.uidaho.edu/govdoc
Moscow, Idaho 83844-2353     http://inside.uidaho.edu/

Jeff Mork, BLM Boise ID
Here at the BLM State Office I have been using Frank Roberts Metadata.aml for initial metadata collection.  Then I will run USGS Metadata Parser Program to check for FGDC compliance.  The mp program usually shows errors so then I use USGS tkme editor to add to the metadata.  Eventually, I do reach FGDC compliance.  I will be investigating the metadata software made by RTSE USA Incorporated.  If it is quick and easy to use, BLM may be using that in the future.  RTSE software has been adopted by BLM Oregon as their official metadata collection tool.

Many of BLM's employees like to use the metadata extension tool built by NOAA.  I will be investigating this after I investigate RTSE incorporated.

I am anxious to use Arc Catalogue in the Arc 8 version software for metadata collection.  From what I saw at a seminar at the 2000 NW Arc/Info Conference, I was impressed.

Frank Roberts, GIS Manager Coeur d'Alene Tribe:
Over the past year we've continued our push for metadata here at the Coeur d'Alene Tribe.  With the funding from the FGDC we successfully published our ArcInfo metadata tool, and associated documentation on the web at:  http://www.geocities.com/frank_m_roberts/metadatatool.html. The site has had over 750 visitors (as of October 31, 2000), and we currently have users of the tool all over the world.  We have used the information created by the tool to create an intranet web site, which allows Tribal Staff to view metadata and images of the data sets.  This has really facilitated the use of our data sets here at the Tribe.  We also worked together with the INSIDE Idaho project to offer two separate one day metadata training workshops.  All together we had about 40 people attend the two workshops.  The power point presentations from the workshops can be seen on the web at: http://www.geocities.com/frank_m_roberts/metaclass.html.

Lastly, I also taught a metadata workshop at the Inter Tribal GIS (http://www.itgisc.org/) Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  The primary goal of this conference was to bring together GIS users in Indian country and share knowledge and GIS techniques.

In 2001 we have more plans for metadata. The FGDC continued funding for metadata collections and expansion of our metadata activities.  We plan to continue the metadata training workshops. In the event that you are interested in attending a metadata workshop please contact me and I’ll put you on the list. We also have plans to potentially publish some of our data on the web, via our own data server.

If you have questions about the Coeur d'Alene Tribe’s GIS activities please feel free to email me at [email protected].

Madeline Binkley, Enabling Technology, Inc.
http://www.enabletech.com or contact Madeline Binkley at (425) 895-6261.

Agenda and Powerpoint files from Metadata Training (Spring 2000):
 http://www.geocities.com/frank_m_roberts/metaclass.html

Evaluations of Metadata tools:
http://www.fgdc.gov/metadata/toollist/metatools797.html

http://www.fgdc.gov/metadata/toollist/ogrip/met98ful.html

http://badger.state.wi.us/agencies/wlib/sco/metatool/mtools.htm

http://www.fgdc.gov/metadata/toollist/metatool.html

"How To" Guide to Metadata Implementation
http://rat.lic.wisc.edu/metadata/metaprim.htm

Coeur 'd Alene Tribe Metadata tool:
http://www.geocities.com/frank_m_roberts/metadatatool/

Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC):
http://www.fgdc.gov

FGDC Content Standard for Digital
Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM)
http://www.fgdc.gov/metadata/contstan.html

An Image Map of the Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata  (Frank's Pick for most usefull metadata site)
http://biology.usgs.gov/fgdc.metadata/version2/

Metadata Workbook Version 2
http://www.fgdc.gov/metadata/meta_workbook.html

FGDC Clearinghouse
http://www.fgdc.gov/clearinghouse/clearinghouse.html

Arc Info 8 Metadata capabilities:
http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/summer99articles/ai8special/ai8_metadata.html
ESRI Profile of the Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata: http://www.esri.com/metadata/esriprof80.html

BLM Geospatial Support Staff Metadata Tutorial
http://www.blm.gov/gis/meta/barney/tut_met1.html

Metadata in plain language. By USGS
http://geology.usgs.gov/tools//metadata/tools/doc/ctc/

State of Idaho Metadata Standard
Version 4.0 in HTML: http://www.idwr.state.id.us/IGIAC/metadata/profile.htm
Version 4.0 in PDF: http://www.users.dmi.com/froberts/metadata/Meta40.pdf
Version 3.0 in PDF: http://www.users.dmi.com/froberts/metadata/META30.pdf

Page last updated:  10/31/2000