GISC Seminar: Towards Uncharted GroundSeptember 29, 2006 North Carolina Partnership with Library of Congress on Long-term Preservation of Digital Geospatial.

GISC Seminar: Towards Uncharted Ground September 29, 2006

North Carolina Partnership with Library of Congress on Long-term Preservation of Digital Geospatial Data

Steve MorrisNorth Carolina State University Libraries

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NC Geospatial Data Archiving Project (NCGDAP)

Partnership between university library (NCSU) and state agency (NCCGIA), with Library of Congress as part of the National Digital Information Infrastructure & Preservation Program (NDIIPP)One of 8 initial NDIIPP partnershipsFocus on state and local geospatial content in North Carolina (state demonstration)Tied to NC OneMap initiative, which provides for seamless access to data, metadata, and inventoriesObjective: engage existing state/federal geospatial data infrastructures in preservation

Serve as catalyst for discussion within industry

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Today’s state/local data as tomorrow’s cultural heritage

Future uses of data are difficult to anticipate (as with Sanborn Maps).

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NC Spatial Data Infrastructure: NCOneMap

NC OneMap is a next generation mechanism to coordinate and disseminate geographic information in North Carolina and interact with the NSDI.

Objectives:

• Build a common understanding of North Carolina data resources

• Enable widespread access and distribution of geospatial data

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NC OneMap

Objectives (cont.):

• Develop ongoing data inventory for all geospatial data holdings RAMONA – http://nc.gisinventory.net

• Develop content standards for key data themesNC Geographic InformationCoordinating Council (GICC)

One of the defined characteristics of NC OneMap is that “Historic and temporal data will be maintained and available”.

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NC OneMap Viewer (integrated WMS services)

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Different Ways to Approach Preservation

Technical solutions: How do we archive acquired content over the long term?

Ingest processesRepository architectureMetadata processingFormat strategies

Cultural/Organizational solutions: How do we make the data more preservable—and more prone to be archived—from point of production?

Industry outreach and engagementInform standards development processes and best practicesEvolve geospatial data marketplace and software landscapeSocialization of the preservation problem

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Project Technical Approaches

Receive data as is – variety of distribution methodsMigration of some at-risk formatsMetadata remediation, standardization, and synchronizationDistilling complex objects into repository ingest items (not easy)Using DSpace for demonstration purposesIn the development: use METS record as dormant item “brain” within the repository

Some unsustainable activities – for learning experience

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Challenge: Data Formats

No widely-supported, open vector formatsSpatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS) not widely supportedGeography Markup Language (GML) – diversity of application schemas and profiles threatens permanent access“Open” does not necessarily imply “permanent access”

Spatial DatabasesThe whole is more than the sum of the parts, and the sum is very difficult to preserveCan export individual data layers for curationSome thinking of using the spatial database as the primary archival platform

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Challenge: Cartographic Representation

Counterpart to the map is not just the dataset but also models, symbolization, classification, annotation, etc.

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Challenge: Geospatial Web Services

• How to capture records from decision- making processes?• Possible: Atlas collections from automated image capture• Web 2.0 and AJAX impact: Emerging tiling and caching schemes (archive tiles?)

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Leveraging Existing Spatial Data Infrastructure

Metadata outreach and best practicesContent standards and practicesRegional partnershipsEmerging content exchange networksData sharing agreementsPersonal and organizational relationshipsExisting committee structures and meeting venues

Key: Address business problems that are more compelling than archiving on its own (e.g., business continuity, disaster preparedness)

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Challenge: Coordinated Content Transfer

Recent survey: over 20 state agencies plus federal agencies request local data“Contact fatigue”: local governments being swamped by requests – data transfers are non-trivialNeed to allow one data snapshot to be accessible by multiple agencies – what snapshot frequency?Stakeholder groups working to develop a plan for local-to-state data sharing on a regular basisBusiness cases that are more compelling than archiving can put the data in motion (disaster preparedness, business continuity, roads, etc.)

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Engaging Geospatial Industry

Software vendorsMeetings with ESRI development teams (Geodatabase, etc.)Anticipating customer needs for temporal data management

Standards organizationsPresentations to Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Technical Committee in Nov. ’05 and Oct. ’06 (next week)Points of intersection: GML for archiving, GeoDRM, content packaging, metadata, routinized content transfers, more …

Data VendorsCultivating a market for older data

Consulting Firms

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Project Status

Cultivating a commercial market for older data.

Part of “permanent access” is marketing, advertising, and putting information into the path of the user

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Questions?

Steve MorrisHead, Digital Library InitiativesNCSU LibrariesPh: (919) 515-1361Steven_Morris@ncsu.edu

http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/ncgdap