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FDGC - Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata
The United States Federal Geographic Data
Committee (FGDC) approved the Content
Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM) in
June 1998. CSDGM was designed to "provide a common
set of terminology and definitions for the documentation
of digital geospatial data.
The standard is organized in a hierarchy
of data elements, compound elements (groups of data elements)
and information about the values of the data elements
to document a set of digital geospatial data. Through
the CSDGM standard, all the participants in geospatial
digital resources can make their collections searchable
and accessible on the Internet with the implementation
software.
The National
Geospatial Data Clearinghouse, developed by the FGDC,
is a distributed network of geospatial data producers,
managers, and users linked electronically. It uses CSDGM
to describe field-level of digital spatial data, using
ANSI standard Z39.50 for the search. The FGDC has also
developed a profile for geospatial metadata, called "GEO,"
which provides guidance on how to implement FGDC metadata
elements within a Z39.50 service.
FGDC has developed guidelines for creating
extended elements and profiles for CSDGM, if users want
to modify the Standard to meet particular requirements
for their data sets. A profile
is a document that describes the application of the Standard
to a specific user community; contains the Standard, plus
modifications to the optionality or repeatability of non-mandatory
elements in the Standard. It may also contain extended
elements." All the extended elements and profiles
must follow these guidelines to ensure the accessibility
and exchangeability of other users within the network.
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