Center for International Earth Science Information Network
What is a Metadata Record?
Metadata sometimes referred to as data about data is
descriptive text that can best represent data and information
resources. Metadata content such as distributor, abstract, keywords,
spatial and temporal coverage, format and quality can be used to
describe a wide range of resources, from digital and non-digital data
to printed materials and web sites. Metadata writers collect and
organize this content utilizing software tools to produce a
metadata record in a text-based format. The quality of the
content is critical for the metadata record's retrievability via
today's search engines and comprehension by its readers.
CIESIN staff generates metadata records based on the Content Standard for
Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM). In addition, records are
produced in the Government Information
Locator Service (GILS), Directory
Interchange Format (DIF), and the EOS
Data Gateway (EDG) 'Valids' standard formats. Values for most of
the fields (elements, sub-elements) are free-text, while others
are controlled. The metadata records are loaded into several
internal (SEDAC) and external (GILS, GCMD) catalogs, searchable via the SEDAC
Gateway.
Go to the Next Page
Go to the Table of Contents