Metadata Tools:
Creation
Tools
Metadata “toolkits” available to help create metadata. These
tools can be stand-alone applications, internet applications, or integrated into
geospatial applications. Tools may consist of commercial, open-source or
self-developed systems and may also form part of operational GIS systems which
can extract aspects of the metadata automatically from the data itself.
Metadata creation tools fall into several categories
[1] :
- Templates allow a user to enter metadata values into
pre-set fields that match the element set being used. The template will then
generate a formatted set of the element attributes and their corresponding
values.
- Mark-up tools structure the metadata attributes and
values into the specified schema language, for example XML.
- Extraction tools automatically create metadata from an
analysis of the digital resource. The quality of the metadata extracted can
vary significantly and should be considered as an aid to creating metadata.
The resulting metadata should always be manually reviewed and edited.
- Conversion tools translate one metadata format to
another.
There are a variety of free and commercial
software tools available to support metadata development which offer a range of
features and capabilities. The Wisconsin Land Information Clearinghouse has
produced a summary of most of the known metadata tools used for documenting
geospatial data and serving geospatial metadata.[2]
The US FGDC has also prepared a review of available
ISOInternational
Organization for Standardization
Metadata Editors.[3]
GeoNetwork opensource
GeoNetwork is a standards based geographic metadata
catalogue system to manage spatially referenced resources. It provides powerful
metadata editing and search functions as well as an embedded interactive web map
viewer which can be used to visualize the data described by the metadata
[4].
GeoNetwork supports the principle of “federated catalogues” used to query from
one catalogue client metadata from different catalogues.
GeoNetwork features include:
- Search access to local and distributed geospatial
catalogues
- Upload and download of data, graphics, documents, pdf
files and any other content type
- An interactive Web Map Viewer to combine Web Map Services
from distributed servers
- Online editing of metadata with a powerful template
system
- Native support for ISO19115/ISO19119/ISO19139, FGDC and
Dublin Core formatted metadata
- Scheduled harvesting and synchronization of metadata
between distributed catalogues
- Group and user management
- Multi-lingual user interface
GeoNetwork opensource is based on the principles of Free
and Open Source Software and can be downloaded directly from the
GeoNetwork website or through OceanTeacher's
Marine Data Handling and Editing Tools.
References
-
↑
Understanding Metadata (NISO, 2004)
-
↑
Metadata Tools for Geospatial Data (WiscLINC)
-
↑
ISO Metadata Editor Review (FGDC)
-
↑
GeoNetwork opensource Community website