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Creating and using the urgent metadata catalogue and thesaurus
C Isabella Tindall1, Roger V Moore, John D Bosley
1The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Crowmarsh Gifford, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, OX10 8BB, UK. cit@ceh.ac.uk
The Science of the Total Environment
|December 1, 2005
Summary
The Urban Regeneration and the Environment Research Programme (URGENT) developed four applications to catalog and search diverse scientific datasets, improving data accessibility for its multidisciplinary community. Future work will address ergonomic issues and standardize data formats for larger programs.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Science
- Geospatial Data Management
- Information Science
Background:
- The Urban Regeneration and the Environment Research Programme (URGENT) required a robust system for cataloguing and discovering its diverse datasets.
- A multidisciplinary scientific community needed advanced search functionalities, including support for users unfamiliar with specialist terminology.
Purpose of the Study:
- To design and develop a system enabling efficient cataloguing and discovery of URGENT's scientific datasets.
- To provide search facilities catering to a multidisciplinary user base, including those with limited domain-specific knowledge.
Main Methods:
- Developed four applications: Metadata Capture Tool (NGDF compliant), Term Entry Tool (ISO compliant thesaurus), Thesaurus Builder, and a Search Tool.
- Designed capture tools as standalone applications to encourage user participation in data cataloguing.
- Implemented export/import facilities for central database creation and web publication.
Main Results:
- Successfully created a system that met its design objectives for dataset cataloguing and discovery.
- Extended the National Geospatial Data Framework (NGDF) standard to accommodate time-variant and 3-D atmospheric datasets.
- Identified ergonomic issues requiring attention for future, larger-scale programs.
Conclusions:
- The developed system effectively addressed the initial needs for dataset cataloguing and accessibility within URGENT.
- Future challenges include transitioning to ISO standards, aligning with INSPIRE Project recommendations, and integrating metadata with scientific databases for semi-automated maintenance.