Juggling Points and Polygons: GIS Researchers’ Metadata and Search Needs

Abstract

This article discusses the results of a focus group analyzing advanced and intermediate Geographic Information System (GIS) researchers’ metadata needs and information-finding behavior while using the online GIS Lookup at North Carolina State University (NCSU) Libraries, as well as a metadata normalization project that resulted from study findings. Information was gathered on what metadata is important to GIS researchers for resource discovery, how researchers want to be able to search for data sets, and the importance of controlled vocabulary for GIS keywords.

KEYWORDS:

• data normalization
• geospatial data search
• GIS
• metadata
• user needs

Notes

1. See the ArcGIS Resource Center help files for release version 10.0: http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/Export_Metadata_Multiple/00120000000v000000/

2. Steve Morris. Email to author, July 31, 2010.

3. The poll was conducted by the authors in May–June 2010 and was sent to Maps, Air Photo & Geospatial Systems Forum <[email protected]> as well as to GIS4lib <[email protected]> on June 1, 2010. Subject: GIS data search tools: how do you handle keywords?

4. Jakob Nielson, a Web usability expert, has written that focus groups should be composed of six to nine users: http://www.useit.com/papers/focusgroups.html

5. The GIS Lookup is NCSU Libraries’ GIS data set search system: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/gis/

6. Test materials may be downloaded from the NCSU Libraries User Studies Web page: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/userstudies/studies/2010_GIS_focusgroup/

7. For more information on Morae, see http://www.techsmith.com/morae.asp

8. Despite a self-imposed level of “beginner” GIS researcher for 2 participants, all participants had GIS training and had used NCSU's GIS data finder previously to search for data sets. The study therefore characterized them as intermediate.

9. Within the SDTS Object section of FGDC there is an element called “SDTS_Point_and_ Vector_Object_Type” that can contain the same information. Librarians decided to assign Feature Type manually because the metadata in the FGDC element was not expressed in colloquial terms. The ESRI profile of FGDC (created after NCSU defined local elements) also has its own element called “Geometry_Type” that is similar to NCSU's Feature Type. However, NCSU typically receives FGCD CSDGM metadata with data sets.

10. For a more in-depth discussion of the NCSU decision to manually assign Scale, see Lowe (2002). Finders and Keepers in Search of Spatial Data. Geospatial Solutions Magazine, June, 2–5.

11. At the time this article was written, the metadata displayed on the individual results screen included Title, Description/Abstract, Keywords (Theme), Data Type, Feature Type, Coordinate System, Datum, Map Units, Extent, Scale, Created By, Released By, Content Date, Published Date, Collection, File Size, Acquired Date, Distribution Restrictions, and links to both the local and external metadata file.

12. At the time this article was written, the contents of the NCSU local element Extent were drawn from a controlled list of 10 terms.

13. See the NCSU GIS home page: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/gis/index.html

14. For example, if a user searched by Extent “United States,” the system could return only data sets that cover the entirety of the United States, or it could return data sets that cover the entire United States and also data sets that cover other smaller geographic subsets of the United States, such as North Carolina.

15. Steve Morris. Email to the author, July 30, 2010.

16. Beginners may find a keyword browse useful for better understanding what is generally available, however, this study was only with intermediate and advanced researchers.