Australian Antarctic Division Metadata Dave Connell

The Australian Antarctic Data Centre https://data.aad.gov.au/

The Australian Antarctic Data Centre Established in 1995 Has responsibility for the data management of the Australian Antarctic program Fulfils Australia's obligations under Article (III).(1).(c) of the Antarctic Treaty – “Scientific observations and results from Antarctica shall be exchanged and made freely available.” A large number of multi-themed science projects running each season Diverse management requirements Core Trust Seal Accreditation (World Data System)

Metadata History 1995-1999 – ANZLIC 1999-present – DIF Developed and maintained by the Global Change Master Directory (part of NASA) Meets obligation to international Antarctic community 2008-present – ISO 19115 Profiles and EML Vanilla, MCP 1.4, ANZLIC, ANDS (RIF-CS) 2019 – ISO 19115-1

Metadata Process Create/Edit The metadata process at the AADC (metadata creation/editing) User creates/edits a metadata record Record is submitted to the metadata officer for checking Once metadata officer is satisfied, the record is loaded into the database and made live Involves a human step – records are not automatically loaded Check/Approve Allows for quality checking of metadata – ensures a high standard of records are maintained – there’s a back and forth process to get the right information. Also means that there is an authentication step – as anyone can edit a metadata record, the human step means that any unauthorised edits can be ignored (can only remember this happening once in twenty years). Load

Creating/Editing Metadata A good metadata authoring tool is key GCMD DIF tool Complex Jargon Clunky Mostly produced poor quality metadata that required AADC time to fix Metadata tools have a reputation (often fairly deserved) of being difficult to use – anyone who has used an ISO 19115 metadata tool will definitely know what I’m talking about. DIF tool, once considered to be one of the more user friendly tools, is also difficult. Have to click through each field, the XML box is meant for super-users, but tended to confuse regular users (and would also confuse “super-users”…

Creating/Editing Metadata 2012 - Word template alternative Short and simple Could be used offline (e.g. on Antarctic voyage) Enormously successful – high quality metadata produced Lot of work for the AADC to then convert into a DIF metadata record Time consuming Manual process http://www.bernhardtwealth.com/blog/complex-vs-simple-investment-strategies-ii

Creating/Editing Metadata 2015 – Release of AADC developed metadata tool DIF based Streamlined – many fields removed or automatically set Wizard interface Produces complete DIF XML, minimal modification by AADC Very successful

Metadata Availability 2010ish – 2018 – WEBDAV Was hacked/vulnerable, and had to be taken offline. 2018 – OAM-PMH service set up. Seems to be functioning properly… I don’t have actual metrics, but from personal observation, I spend much less time “fixing” metadata, and I rarely have to show someone how to use the tool. Previously I’d often sit over their shoulder. Currently working on an admin version that incorporates all the other fields (at the moment I have to use the GCMD tool as my admin/power interface).

ISO 19115-1 Process Reasonable understanding of 19115-1, but not 19115-3 Had a mapping – I knew what needed to go where, but didn’t know what it should look like For the original ISO standard I used the Bluenet tool to create a dummy metadata record and created a DIF-ISO XSLT from that This time I used Evert’s dummy metadata record as a basis Enough information there for me to extrapolate a complete DIF based ISO 19115-1 record

ISO 19115-1 Process Had to incorporate two elements from 19115/19157 (thanks to advice from Evert Bleys) VerticalCRS information – EX_VerticalExtent allows for values to be added, but does not specify a unit or a direction (altitude or depth) 19115 solution re-used Data Quality information – spatialResolution was inadequate for describing horizontal and vertical resolutions. No way of describing temporal resolution information. Positional Accuracy and Temporal Quality now held in 19157 (were in 19115). Re-used 19115 solution with new namespaces.

ISO 19115-1 Process – XSLT Created New DIF-ISO 19115-1/-3 XSLT created Doesn’t quite cover the full DIF standard (very close) Significant input from Johnathan Kool to improve functionality Tested on the Geoscience Australia Validator Managed to resolve all issues – clean bill of health Evert Bleys kindly agreed to do some more testing Uncovered some more issues – not so clean… Currently resolving the issues – about three remain

Next Steps Implement the XSLT Convert records to 19115-1 format Will continue to make records available in 19115 format also Disseminate it out to the Antarctic community (who use DIF)