METADATA: THE KEY TO THE PRESERVATION AND DISSEMINATION OF EARTH SCIENCE SPATIAL DATA

Often the biggest roadblock to making GIS data available to the public is that the creator of the project either does not have the time or the skills to create the metadata, a crucial component to making spatial data findable on GIS data portals. This paper describes how one academic library stepped in to help its campus community develop and distribute FGDC compliant metadata to the Nebraska's GIS metadata portal, http://www.dnr.ne.gov/databank/geospatial.html, for their GIS research projects.

The paper will highlight the details of the University of Nebraska – Lincoln Libraries' GIS metadata program, which includes metadata training workshops using ArcCatalog and MP Batch Processor, one-on-one consultations, and a partnership with the School of Natural Resources Conservation and Survey Division to clean-up existing metadata.