IGIAC Metadata News

Tuesday, November 03, 1998

A note from Frank Roberts, Metadata Chair
It's hard to believe another year has gone by.  My general consensus is that all of you have been extremely busy, like I have been. When we met last year to talk about metadata, one of the concerns was if the Idaho metadata standard was compatible with the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) standard. Over the year, our GIS shop has taken some time to develop a draft crosswalk between the two standards (see Appendix A). The crosswalk was created between the IGIAC version 3, IGIAC version 4, and FGDC version 1. Your review of this work would be a great asset to the IGIAC metadata group. Shortly after the project was completed, we acquired a copy of FGDC version 2 (http://www.fgdc.gov/metadata/contstan.html ), so the crosswalk should be expanded to take in the new version of the FGDC standard.

ISO Metadata Standard: what is it?
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) metadata standard is a world standard for metadata (http://www.fgdc.gov/publications/documents/metadata/nimapaper.html ). Once this standard is adopted by ISO, it is my understanding it will replace the current FGDC standard that is in place. This then means all federally funded GIS data sets will need to have ISO compiled metadata constructed for them. For this reason, I attended a review of the ISO metadata standard that was held by FGDC in Reston, VA. During that meeting, we discussed the currently submitted comments on the ISO standard that were received by FGDC and prepared comments to be sent to ISO's review board.

Metadata Committee Member Reports:

Linda Davis, IDWR
IDWR has imagery, ArcView shape files, Arc/Info export files and metadata available at:
http://www.idwr.state.id.us/gisdata/gis.htm
We hope to expand the amount of data available on this site soon.

We have looked at a variety of Metadata tools over the past year.  There are quite a few that have easy input but none make producing metadata especially fun. (especially with those coverages that are really old and no one can remember their genealogy). We are using fgdcmeta.aml with cns (chew 'n spit) and mp parser to create our metadata.  We are using these tools because fgdcmeta allows us to create templates for all of the main metadata producers.  Fgdcmeta will automatically populate some metadata fields with the Arc/Info Information.  The combination of tools allows us to produce metadata in both .html and .txt format.

Frank Roberts, GIS Manager Coeur d'Alene Tribe:
In the past year the Tribe has been up to our armpits in metadata. The primary drive for this is the Coeur d'Alene Basin Superfund Assessment that will determine if the entire basin should be a superfund site. This has forced us to really track all current and existing GIS data layers. At this time we have continued to expand upon the original metadata AML conceived by Bob Smith at IDL, and have expanded its capability to track coverage's three different description categories. These categories include: general description, item descriptions, and spatial description. We have also enabled the AML to be run in a batch mode to construct generalized metadata for all layers found in our system. At this time we are creating metadata for over 2000 GIS layers.

Hall Guttormsen Tax Mapping Coordinator, State Tax Commission:
We are working with the counties (44) and moving them to computer mapping systems and trying to keep them aware about the quality of data and where they get their data from. For the most part most counties are working at the COGO level with parcel information obtained from surveys. Several counties are attaching appraisal data to the parcels (7) but not on the same software platform. Three on ArcInfo, three Intergraph, and one Terra Model. There are several that are working with AutoCAD Map (3) but have not completed a majority of their mapping of the county. There are some counties that are using AutoCAD release 14 (3) but have not chosen to migrate to Map at this point. This is where the counties are presently with more steadily coming into computer mapping all the time. Metadata is not a concern for the counties even though it should be. They are using the GCDB as their control base and have not been inserting the better data into their database and documenting it as they could be doing.

Jeff A Mork, GIS Specialist at the BLM State Office:
My plan here is to collect a few Metadata fields for each Arc coverage made for the 7.5 minute base data that we create and maintain for BLM Idaho.  Then I will collect metadata using the IGIAC model on a  project  basis.  I think that will address our present Metadata need at the State Office.
 
Larry Lass, Research Support Scientist III University of Idaho
We have mapping standards for weed surveys in Idaho. The standards are posted on our web site at http://plantain.ag.uidaho.edu

Loudon Stanford, IGS Digital Mapping and GIS lab
IGS continues to collect FGDC compliant metadata in database form. The IGS Digital Mapping and GIS lab has been collecting metadata for over 3 years on all new and compiled geologic mappings data.

This summer the lab has been involved in adopting the USGS preliminary/proposed Digital Geologic Map Data Model (V 4.2). This model is a large relational database meant to be used with geologic map data to make it "smart" for even non-geologists. For example, one will be able to sort by lithology, age, or landform and make a new map dataset from the query. IGS is currently developing a prototype map data set and working on a set of ArcView tools. Metadata is a large part of the relational database.

Piotr Jankowski, Associate Professor
Department of Geography, University of Idaho:
Geolibrary is a digital library for public-domain geographic data about the state of Idaho that is accessible free-of-charge to any group or person. This service is provided by the University of Idaho Geography Department and the Library as part of its charge to provide public access to a wide variety of mapping products. This central data repository is shared over the Internet. User access to the data is provided through a geographic data browser featuring geographic entity and location queries.

 The infrastructure is comprised of GeoLibrary software that allows access to the server database, and retrieves Digital Line Graph (DLG) coverages, Digital Raster Graphics (DRG) image files, Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), and Tiger boundary files in the shape file format for the state of Idaho. The search for data can be conducted by USGS quad name, county name, or any selected geographic area. Additionally the site provides interactive links to other Idaho and national spatial data repositories. http://geolibrary.uidaho.edu/

Metadata Tools
Many of you commented to me that you would like to have some feedback on potential metadata tools available. The following are a couple of web sites that I would recommend that either have a list of tools and/or a comparison of metadata tools.

http://www.fgdc.gov/metadata/toollist/ogrip/met98ful.html
http://www.fgdc.gov/metadata/toollist/metatools797.html
http://www.state.oh.us/ogrip/newpubs.htm

 NOAA has a tool for use in ArcView, which asks you the question in english & gives you the green book number that the question is referring to at the same time, so it might be helpful for you to determine exactly what the various fields are asking. You can download it for free off the internet. Check it out:
http://www.csc.noaa.gov/metadata/text/download.html#readme

Questions or comments may be sent to Frank Roberts at [email protected]