Standards Support
The Geoportal supports several metadata standards by default. The Create metadata form will generate valid metadata for each of these with no configuration required. The metadata created with the form is not exhaustive and will not include all elements defined in the standards. However, elements that are considered mandatory to the standard or that enhance the usability of the metadata for geographic purposes are included. Details for the out-of-the-box standards that Geoportal supports are given below.
- FGDC: The FGDC standard comes from the Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata, a publication authored by the United States Federal Geographic Data Committee that specifies the information content of metadata for digital geospatial datasets. The standard provides a common set of terminology for concepts related to the metadata. U.S. government agencies that receive federal funds to create metadata had to follow this standard in the past. Now there is a move for government agencies to use the North American Profile for their metadata instead. The FGDC standard implementation is freely available online, and contains 334 elements. Files in the Geoportal that define support for FGDC can be found in the \\geoportal\WEB-INF\classes\gpt\metadata\fgdc folder.
- ISO 19115 and 19119: ISO standards come from the International Organization for Standardization, a federation of standards institutes that work to define criteria for international standards. ISO 19115 is used for describing geographic datasets. ISO 19119 is used to describe web services. To distinguish ISO 19119 Services metadata, check for the presence of <SV_ServiceIdentification> tags, which will only be present in the ISO 19119 Services metadata. The ISO standards must be purchased, and are available at http://www.iso.org/iso/store.htm. Files in the Geoportal that define support for ISO 19115 and ISO 19119 are found in the \\geoportal\WEB-INF\classes\gpt\metadata\\iso folder.
- North American Profile: In the past, U.S. government agencies were mandated to use the FGDC standard for formatting metadata. Recently, this has changed, as it has become important for an internationally recognized standard to be used to facilitate data sharing across borders, specifically on the North American continent. The North American Profile is based on the ISO 19115 (dataset) and ISO 19119 (services) metadata profile, but implements additional mandatory values that are not mandatory as per the ISO standards alone. For more information on the North American Profile, see the Federal Geographic Data Committee's NAP website. Files in the Geoportal that define support for the North American Profile are found in the \\geoportal\WEB-INF\classes\gpt\metadata\iso\nap folder .
- INSPIRE profile: INSPIRE (Spatial Information in Europe) brings together quality geographic information to a single access point for Europe. INSPIRE metadata is based on the ISO 19115 (dataset) and ISO 19119 (services) standard. INSPIRE also implements extended elements and different mandatory elements than the standard ISO. For more information about INSPIRE, see the INSPIRE Community Geoportal. Files in the Geoportal that define support for INSPIRE metadata are found in the \\geoportal\WEB-INF\classes\gpt\metadata\iso\inspire folder.
- Dublin Core: The Dublin Core standard comes from the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI). The DCMI is an open international organization that seeks to build consensus in the development of interoperable online metadata standards that support a broad range of purposes and business models. The Dublin Core standard has two levels: Simple and Qualified. Simple Dublin Core describes fifteen elements, whereas the Qualified Dublin Core has additional elements and element refinements. The Geoportal Create metadata form for Dublin Core follows the Simple Dublin Core.The Dublin Core standard is freely available online. Files in the Geoportal that define support for Dublin Core are found in the \\geoportal\WEB-INF\classes\gpt\metadata\dc folder.
- ArcGIS Metadata: ArcGIS metadata is the metadata created in ArcGIS Desktop version 10 to briefly describe and identify a metadata resource. To learn more about ArcGIS Metadata, see the webhelp for ArcGIS Desktop Metadata. Files in the Geoportal that define support for Dublin Core are found in the \\geoportal\WEB-INF\classes\gpt\metadata\esri folder.