Metadata in Plain Language

1. What does the data set describe?
2. Who produced the data set?
3. Why was the data set created?
4. How was the data set created?
5. How reliable are the data; what problems remain in the data set?
6. How can someone get a copy of the data set?
7. Who wrote the metadata?

These questions provide a practical deconstruction of the FGDC metadata standard. I developed them by starting with the metadata elements defined in the standard, and asking "what question is really being asked if this is the answer?". My hope is that an interested novice can learn the most important parts of the metadata standard by following the questions he or she thinks users will need to have answered in order to find, get, and use the data. The home site of this set of questions is < http://geology.usgs.gov/tools/metadata/tools/doc/ctc/>

Why use a formal structure for metadata?

Standards

• FGDC (Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata)
• ISO 19115 (plus several other ISO volumes)

The US Federal Geographic Data Committee is commonly referred to as "the FGDC". It developed a standard for metadata in 1994 that underwent a revision in 1998. It is this standard that most of the US (and not a little international) expertise in metadata production addresses. The ISO metadata standard is significantly more complex and difficult to read. Little or no practical guidance for implementing that standard exists.