How can you read metadata to understand the quality, source of your data.
I want to know more about my data
This guide helps you:
- Define metadata and explain its role as data about data.
- Identify the key elements of metadata, including who, what, where, when, why, and how.
What is metadata?
Metadata is data about your data. It is information that describes the who, what, where, when, why, and how of a dataset. Metadata provides context to the content of the data.
- Who created the dataset?
- What is the dataset about?
- Where is the geographic coverage of the dataset?
- When was the data gathered? What is the time period covered by the data?
- Why was this dataset created?
- How was the data gathered?
Why does metadata matter?
Quality metadata makes it easier to search for data, whether it is your own data or data from an external source, like the GeoConnect Data Catalog [link]. When data is discoverable, it is usable. Creating metadata for a dataset requires you to identify and assess what you do and do not know about your dataset, which can help you evaluate whether or not it is appropriate to use in a specific context or project.
Where can you find metadata?
Metadata might be attached to a file, or it might be published on a website where you access data. Sometimes it’s not obvious, and you might have to do some looking around! If it’s attached to a file, it might come as a readme file or it might be stored in a way that you can view it within a GIS program by looking at the file details.
Metadata Standards:
ISO Geospatial Metadata Standards are an internationally recognized framework designed to describe geographic datasets, services, and resources globally. These standards promote data discovery, retrieval, and proper reuse across disparate scientific databases. Search engines and spatial data catalogs read these standard tags to let you filter by geographic coordinates, collection dates, keywords, and data quality to find exact maps, imagery, or datasets.
Resources:
- Introduction to metadata
- About ISO
- ISO Geospatial Metadata Standards
- Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)
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