Making Your Data More Valuable: The Importance of Metadata from a Conservation Management Perspective
Session Organizer: Vivian Hutchison
When: July 13, 2008

Description:
Metadata is a valuable tool. Metadata records are critical to conservation management as they preserve the usefulness of data over time by detailing methods for data collection and data set creation. Metadata greatly minimize duplication of effort in the collection of expensive digital data and foster sharing of digital data resources. Metadata supports local data asset management such as local inventory and data catalogs, and external user communities such as Clearinghouses and websites. It provides adequate guidance for end-use application of data such as detailed lineage and context. Metadata makes it possible for data users to search, retrieve, and evaluate data set information from vast networks of biological and geospatial databases by providing standardized descriptions of geospatial and biological data.

In the United States, the creation of metadata records for federally funded science projects was mandated by President Clinton in 1995 through Executive Order 12906. All federal and many non-federal organizations, including international organizations, have accepted the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata as a means of documenting datasets for data distribution, data management, and internal project management. A new international standard is emerging from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO19115). This emerging standard has been adopted by the United States and is recognized by the geographic information community worldwide. 

This metadata workshop will provide an introduction to metadata as an organizational tool. The presentation will define the value of metadata to conservation organizations, describe the role of metadata in data management and distribution, and briefly explain the origin of the FGDC metadata standard and profiles such as the Biological Data Profile. In addition, the workshop will outline the status and structure of the emerging ISO 19115 standard, how it relates to the FGDC standard, and demonstrate ways in which a metadata program can be implemented at an organization.