ISO Metadata¶
ISO Metadata¶
This FAQ references the FGDC endorsed ISO (International Organization for Standardization) metadata standards, ISO 19115: Geographic information - Metadata. For more information see FGDC’s ISO 191** Suite of Geospatial Metadata Standards.
ISO metadata provides descriptive information about geospatial datasets and products to make them easier to discover, access, and use. The ISO standards specify the XML implementation for the metadata. Good metadata supports the FAIR Principles making data:
Findable Machine-readable metadata support the automatic discovery of datasets and services
Accessible Once a user finds the required data, metadata provides information on how the data can be accessed
Interoperable Metadata provides the information necessary for the data to work reliably with other data, applications, or workflows for analysis, storage, and processing
Reusable
Metadata provides the information so that data can be used to derive other data and replicated and/or combined in different settings
Metadata Background Information:**¶
USGS’s Metadata in plain language
NOAA’s Introduction to Metadata
Wikipedia’s Geospatial metadata
FGDC’s Geospatial Metadata
Metadata Editors¶
Since XML is a textual format, text editors could be used to create and modify XML. In practice, unless the changes that are being made are relatively simple, having an XML editor simplifies the process. XML editors provide added capabilities to manage XML tags and structure. ISO metadata editors are XML editors that are specialized for ISO metadata editing. These editors can be further specialized to support agency- specific metadata requirements.
For more information on metadata, editors see the Metadata Editors FAQ.
