Due to the increasing availability of geospatial data on the web, and the expanding universe of GIS users, accurate and up-to-date metadata is now, more than ever, a key part of data use, maintenance, and development.
The creation of metadata that conforms to GIS community standards, is closely integrated with your data, and is stored in industry-standard XML format is critical to making your data fully useful to your clients. It ensures institutional continuity, fosters good data maintenance practices, and, where appropriate, advertises your data through metadata publication.
Students will build FGDC-compliant metadata with ArcCatalog tools and metadata add-ins. New ArcGIS 10 metadata tools will be used to export and validate your work. Options to migrate your metadata workflow to the new ArcGIS 10 ESRI metadata format will be discussed.
Metadata maintenance posting and publishing protocols, as well as ways to make your metadata accessible and useful to your GIS users, will be shown. A step-by-step workbook, with easy-to-follow visual guides and hints, is provided and will be used in exercises for creating student metadata. It will also serve as a valuable take-home reference for future metadata creation or maintenance.
Audience
Document Your Data: Mastering Metadatais for all GIS data/metadata maintainers. The material is also useful for subject matter experts who do not use ArcCatalog’s metadata editor extensively, but who are responsible for providing metadata content. This class can benefit all GIS users as the techniques, tools, and products discussed comply with industry and GIS community standards and are applicable to any organization interested in building or improving the quality of their data library through more complete and structured documentation.
Goals
Students will leave class with complete, error-free, FGDC-compliant metadata that has good user value.
Students will gain an understanding of key sections of the FGDC (Federal Geographic Data Committee) standard.
Students will learn how to use ArcCatalog's FGDC add-in to create and update metadata for data they will create during the remainder of the the Academy classes.
Students will investigate new options for metadata maintenance and workflow available in ArcGIS 10.
Students will export their metadata to a standalone XML document, perform quality assessment, and publish your metadata to HTML format.
Students will view their metadata as a living document tightly linked to the maintenance of their data set.
Topics Covered
XML metadata format and ArcCatalog Metadata Editor (FGDC add-in and new ArcGIS 10 interface).
Hints on interpreting the FGDC standard and tips for applying it to real-life workflows.
Sample FGDC metadata content as examples for creating your own.
In-class exercises to import, edit, QC and export what you've created.
How to review enumeration listings to make logical choices on how to document your data.
Techniques for performing quality control/assessment on your metadata.
Tips and ideas on maintaining your documentation long-term.
Creating HTML stylesheet versions of your metadata for publication.
