Metadata Systems and Tools

Metadata Systems and Tools

Metadata Principles

Matthew Mayernik (NCAR Library & University Corporation for Atmospheric Research)

• Principles: an established part of library and information science education & practice

  • 1961: Paris Principles - basis for cataloguing code

  • Directives for how info systems and languages should be designed → consistency

• Examples from information science community for how principles may look

  • Svenonius (2000)

  • Weibel (1995)

    • Describe intrinsic properties; describe the thing as it describes itself

    • Have objectives/purpose in mind and fit description to stated purpose

    • Disagreement over whether it’s important to have specifications for certain fields

  • Ecology/earth science community is very aware of principles but hasn’t taken the time to implement them

• So...

  • What are the principles of metadata criterion for scientific data?

  • Would the scientific data communities benefit from developing an agreed-upon set of metadata principles?

  • What would be the appropriate venue(s) for such discussions? ESIP? Research Data Alliance

• Questions/Discussion:

  • LTER for EML, DataOne → examples from some communities (discussion of principles and best practices)

  • RDA metadata working group → outcome from working group is metadata principles

  • National Centers for Environmental Info → key principles section

NCEI’s ATRAC

Nancy Ritchey, NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information

• ATRAC = Advanced Tracking and Resource tool for Archive Collections

• ATRAC manages and tracks data archiving projects within the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)

  • project info & status, a number of forms are there including a metadata form

  • allows you to collaborate

  • project status & attributes stored for long term (search/view); documents like metadata, archive request are downloaded and stored elsewhere (download)

  • can edit permissions, search projects that have been archived

  • public won’t necessarily see your metadata

• ATRAC metadata creation tool

  • produces ISO 19115-2 metadata using web form input; understanding of metadata standards is NOT required

  • can have multiple people work on the form before moving on to other actions

  • can preview your metadata landing page

  • can import information from other forms in the system, like archive request form

• Planned improvements for 2016

  • add NOAA data management plan; prototype cost model for archive that will incorporate into the interface

  • updating for ISO metadata updates and improving rubric scores

• Questions/Discussion

  • how different from S2N? S2N allows you to submit data as well as create metadata record but fewer applicable use cases; same for how this relates to CEdit, DocuComp, etc.

  • There is a “triage page” to tell you where to go based on what kind of data you have

GCMD Updates: New Keyword Search Interface ‘Alpha Version’

Tyler Stevens, NASA Global Change Master Directory (GCMD)

• Help facilitate metadata creation, curation, quality of metadata

• Objectives:

  • Keyword interface will use the Common Metadata Repository (CMR) as the back-end; so this (GCMD) is a front-end client to the CMR (anything currently in GCMD database is being moved to CMR)

    • EarthData is another NASA view to the CMR (both search through GCMD keywords)

  • Added additional functionality for precision and recall to existing interface

    • Free-Text Search: searches all indexed fields for a term

    • Can also browse through entire keyword hierarchy

    • Can also sort by temporal coverage, spatial coverage, etc.

• Questions/Discussion

  • would be really great to have a keyword validator for people who are submitting metadata → come to the poster session tonight!

  • there is a publicly accessible keywords list for GCMD - Keyword Management Service API

  • continues to support all the same keyword sets

  • general agreement that the keywords are the best thing out of GCMD--continued maintenance and available of those programmatically is important

Metadata Management Tool for CMR (Common Metadata Repository)

Dana Shum, EOSDIS

• Metadata Management Tool (MMT) is a way to create and edit metadata that sits on top of CMR

  • Improve metadata quality: MMT ensures that data entered is valid & provides data quality analysis and guidance in partnership with HDF Group (coming in 2016)

  • ISO compliance: MMT saves metadata to the CMR in a format that can be converted to ISO on the fly

  • Make use of new features CMR keeps adding to allow users to more easily find data

  • Reduce the number of UIs we use: trying to consolidate different UIs into fewer locations

• Permissions, ability to edit drafts before submitting, pulls keywords from KMS when filling out metadata form, publish directly to CMR when ready

• Can search for past records, edit them, copy things from them, also view past revisions…

• Quality meter is coming soon!

• MMT is available for beta use at https://mmt.earthdata.nasa.gov

• beta testing will be started in February, can be a beta test user by emailing [email protected]

• Questions/Discussion

  • UUID for keywords will be removed from forms bc people don’t know them