Geospatial Librarian

Note: This is the first in a series of posts describing the metadata tools in ArcGIS.  ArcGIS contains several tools for metadata creation, editing, and transformations.  They are found in Conversion Tools - Metadata.  This post reviews the  Synchronize Metadata  tool.  Esri's official definition of the tool is: "Automatically updates an ArcGIS item's metadata with the current properties of the item." This tool is often referred to in terms of updating a file if its metadata has  changed .  However, for this project, we are also interested in the tool because it can fill in  missing  information.  Many of the metadata files we are working with do not include technical information such as Geometry Type, Spatial Reference, Extents, or an Attribute Table.  However, his information can be created if we download the dataset, open it in ArcGIS, and run the Synchronize Metadata tool.  Part 1:  Creating technical metadata for a shapefile when there is no ArcGIS

So far, we have explored using ArcGIS Desktop, ArcGIS Online, Oxygen, and Omeka for editing and transforming our geospatial metadata.  This week, we took a closer look at  Geonetwork 's capabilities as a metadata editor. Geonetwork is an open source, ISO-centric geospatial metadata catalog that can also function as a geoportal.  Judging from its example use cases, it is primarily utilized in Europe and Africa. For installation, it does require a little more setup time & knowledge than the other editing tools we have been using, but once installed, the user experience is quite straightforward.  I installed a local-only, test version on my desktop, and here are a few highlights from what I have discovered: Users & Groups Each University can be set up as a working group within a Geonetwork instance, and each user can be assigned editing permissions related to specific groups. Import Metadata files can be imported in a batch. I had success importing both ArcGIS

Our project is currently in a trial phase involving simple metadata file collection and evaluation.  Most institutions have obtained metadata files in xml format from their state's GIS clearinghouse and forwarded them to myself.  Nearly all of these files use the  FGDC metadata standard. There are a number of issues to address before we can ingest these files into a geoportal including: Data download link: missing from some files, and in various fields across states Technical information:  missing from some files, but obtainable from dataset (examples are attribute table and coordinate system) Aggregation:  this set of elements can be used to cross-reference to other datasets, but its employment has been inconsistent Interpretation of fields:  there are a few instances of the same elements being used to hold different types of values across states Usage limitations cited in metadata: some of the files request that the metadata should not be edited or addended. We are