Value of Metadata
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Transcript Value of Metadata
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Lesson 8: Value of Metadata
Value of Metadata
• Illustrate the value of metadata to data users, data
providers, and organizations
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• Describe the utility of metadata for a variety of scenarios
Value of Metadata
• After completing this lesson, the participant will be able to:
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o Identify 3 reasons metadata is of value to data users, data
developers, and organizations
o List 3 uses for metadata, beyond discovery of data
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Plan
Analyze
Collect
Integrate
Assure
Discover
Describe
Preserve
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Data
users
Metadata
helps…
Organizations
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• Metadata allows data developers to:
o Avoid data duplication
o Share reliable information
o Publicize efforts – promote the work of a scientist
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and his/her contributions to a field of study
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• Metadata gives a user the ability to:
o Search, retrieve, and evaluate data set information from both inside
and outside an organization
o Find data: Determine what data exists for a geographic location
and/or topic
o Determine applicability: Decide if a data set meets a particular need
o Discover how to acquire the dataset you identified; process and use
the dataset
Value of Metadata
• Metadata helps ensure an organization’s investment in data:
o Documentation of data processing steps, quality control, definitions,
data uses, and restrictions
o Ability to use data after initial intended purpose
• Transcends people and time:
o Offers data permanence
o Creates institutional memory
• Advertises an organization’s research:
o Creates possible new partnerships and collaborations through data
sharing
Value of Metadata
Time of data development
DATA DETAILS
Specific details about problems with individual items or
specific dates are lost relatively rapidly
General details about datasets are
lost through time
Retirement or career change
makes access to “mental
storage” difficult or unlikely
Accident or
technology
change may
make data
unusable
Loss of data
developer leads to
loss of remaining
information
TIME
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(From Michener et al 1997)
DATA DETAILS
Sound information
management, including
metadata development, can
arrest the loss of dataset
detail.
TIME
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• Metadata can support:
o data distribution
o data management
o project management
• If it is:
o considered a component of the data
o created during data development
o populated with rich content
collect
classify
derive
planimetric
imagery
meta
meta
analysis
charette
alternative
committee
review
meta
PLAN
meta
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• The descriptive content of the metadata file can be used to
identify, assess, and access available data resources.
IDENTIFY
• keywords
• geographic location
• time period
• attributes
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ASSESS
• use constraints
• access constraints
• data quality
• availability/pricing
ACCESS
• online access
• order process
• contacts
• A metadata collection can be published to the Internet via:
o website catalog
o web accessible folder (waf)
o Z39.50 metadata clearinghouse
o metadata service
o geospatial data portal
Internet /
Internet
User Query
Value of Metadata
Metadata Collection
Intranet
Dataset
• Examples of Federal and National Portals:
o USGS
• USGS Core Science Metadata Clearinghouse:
http://mercury.ornl.gov/clearinghouse
o Geodata Portal
• Federal e-gov geospatial data portal
http://www.geo.data.gov
o ArcGIS Online
• ESRI sponsored national geospatial data portal
http://www.geographynetwork.com
o GeoConnections Discovery Portal (Canada)
http://www.geoconnections.org/en/index.html
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Value of Metadata
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• Data Maintenance:
o Are the data current?
• Do we have data older than ten years?
• was before some political or geophysical event that resulted in significant
change?
o Are the data valid?
• prior to most current source data
• prior to most current methodologies
• Data Update:
o Contact information
o Distribution policies, availability, pricing, URLs
o New derivations of the dataset
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• Metadata marketing in the past…
If you create metadata,
other people can discover your data
• New and improved message…
If you create metadata,
you can find your own data
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o
o
o
o
o
o
themes / attributes
geographic location
time ranges
analytical methods used
sources and contributors
data quality
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• Find your data by:
Discoverable data is usable data!
Value of Metadata
• Metadata is an exercise in data accountability. It requires
you to assess:
o What do you know about the dataset?
o What don’t you know about the dataset?
o What should you know about the dataset?
Are you willing to associate yourself with the metadata
record ?
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• Metadata allows you to repeat scientific process if:
o methodologies are defined
o variables are defined
o analytical parameters are defined
INPUT
• Metadata allows you to defend your
scientific process:
o demonstrate process
o increasingly GIS-savvy public
requires metadata for consumer information
RESULTS
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• Metadata is a declaration of:
Purpose
What to do.
o the originator’s intended application of
What not to
the data
do…
Use Constraints
o inappropriate applications of the data
Completeness
o features or geographies excluded from the data
Distribution Liability
o explicit liability of the data producer and assumed liability
of the consumer
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Project
Coordination
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• Metadata records can serve as a project design
document:
o descriptions & intent of project
o geographic and temporal extent of project
o source data of project
o attribute requirements of project
• Benefits:
o expectations are clearly outlined
o metadata is integrated into the process
o provides a medium to record progress
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• Use metadata to monitor:
Monitoring requires that
the metadata be actively
maintained and reviewed!
milestones
o data development status
o QA/QC assessments
o needed changes in approach
time
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• Metadata can be a means to improve communications
among project participants
o descriptions & parameters
o keywords, vocabularies, thesauri
o contact information
o attributes
o distribution information
• If reviewed regularly by all participants, metadata created
early and updated during the project improves opportunity
for coordinating:
o source data
o analytical methods
o new information
Value of Metadata
• As a key component of the data, metadata should
be part of any data deliverable
• For quality metadata from a deliverable, the record
should provide:
o Citation information
o Data quailty information
o Accurate geospatial information
o Entities and attributes clearly defined
o Distribution information
Value of Metadata
• Metadata is of critical importance to data
developers, data users, and organizations
• Metadata can be effectively used for:
o data distribution
o Data management
o Project management
• Metadata completes a dataset.
Creating robust metadata is in your OWN best interest!
Value of Metadata
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Value of Metadata