Formal metadata: information and software
A collection of software tools, techniques, admonitions, and advice intended to help those involved in data management create, maintain, and evaluate proper documentation.
A collection of software tools, techniques, admonitions, and advice intended to help those involved in data management create, maintain, and evaluate proper documentation.
Formal metadata is documentation of data (usually geospatial data) that is arranged with a standard structure and format.
A guide for authors and reviewers
The FGDC metadata standard of 1998 remains in widespread use today.
Notes from a virtual training session held at USGS in 2016.
A collection of USGS geoscience metadata
Advice and opinion about creating and using metadata
Keywords in metadata: what to expect from them, what not to expect; how to choose them; how to get the most value from them.
Software that can help you create, validate, and maintain collections of metadata records that are stored as individual files.
| Name | Version | Documentation |
|---|---|---|
| mp | 2.9.50 |
A compiler for formal metadata
mp checks the structure of a metadata record against the FGDC standard, indicating discrepancies. It also re-expresses the metadata in several useful alternative formats. |
| cns | 2.8.6 |
A pre-parser for formal metadata
cns is used in case a text metadata record appears to have correct element names but is in a format that cannot be parsed by mp. Usually the main problem to be corrected is inconsistent indentation, but cns corrects a variety of other conditions. Use with care. |
| xtme | 2.7.26 |
An editor for formal metadata
For primitive installations of the X Window System in which Tcl/Tk is not available, xtme uses Athena widgets. |
| Tkme | 3.0.5 |
Another editor for formal metadata
A versatile editing tool based on the Tcl/Tk toolkit. Tkme version 3 uses controlled vocabulary web services to help you choose keywords. |
| mq | 2.6.31 |
A Tcl interface for formal metadata
Software interface that can be used to implement sophisticated editing operations on large, diverse collections of metadata records that are stored as separate files. |
| DBFmeta | 1.14 |
A tool to help document DBF files
Reads the DBF file and creates a Detailed_Description that can be pasted in a metadata record using Tkme. This tool can be used to detect spelling errors or other consistency problems in the data file. |
| err2html | 2.1.13 |
Make mp's error messages easier to read
Re-expresses the error listing generated by mp to reduce duplication, show most severe messages first, and show hypertext links for element names. |
The software tools described here are included in downloadable packages; to install simply extract.
| System | Package | Contents | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Windows | mp-2.9.50.zip | All programs, source code, documentation | 5.3M |
| Microsoft Windows | tkme.exe | Tkme stand-alone runtime | 2.3M |
| Linux (x64) | bin_lnx.tar.gz | All programs and documentation | 1.5M |
| All | src.tar.gz | Source code and documentation | 1.1M |
| All | tkme.kit | Tkme as a platform-independent starkit | 1.3M |
Use this web site instead of downloading mp, works for cns as well.
Search the USGS directory and get a snippet of Contact_Information you can paste into your metadata.
If you correctly guess the identifier of a USGS publication, this gives it to you formatted as Citation_Information, which you can paste into your metadata.
Create a table explaining the tables and fields in your database; this converts the table into a Detailed_Description for your Entity_and_Attribute_Information section
Create a table of attribute values and their definitions; this creates as Enumerated_Domain metadata elements you can paste into your Attribute section.
Create a table of download files, their formats and descriptions of their contents; this creates as Standard_Order_Process metadata elements you can paste into your Distribution_Information section.
Generate a readable representation of your DBF file, with analysis of the fields (range of numeric values, count of distinct texts). Also provides a SQLite representation of the data.
Generate a readable representation of your CSV file, with analysis of the fields (range of numeric values, count of distinct texts). Also provides a SQLite representation of the data.
Attempts to reformat a typical scientific bibliography into Source_Information metadata elements. Not perfect.
| src.tar.gz | MD5 |
|---|