ESRI International Users ConferenceJune 20, 2007 Data Snapshot Archiving: A Frequency of Capture Survey Steve Morris Jeff Essic North Carolina State University Libraries Jeffrey Brown North Carolina Center for Geographic Information & Analysis

2 Project Background North Carolina Geospatial Data Archiving Project Partnership with Library of Congress under the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program Connected with NC OneMap effort (state/local/federal) Issue: How frequently should county and municipal vector data layers be captured in archives? Parcels, centerlines, jurisdictions, zoning, … Parcel Boundary Changes , North Raleigh, NC

3 Survey Objectives Target all 100 counties and 25 largest municipalities Try to avoid focus on backup strategies (very difficult) Constraint: Keep survey short and interesting Concurrent with RAMONA inventory push Needed to avoid adding to contact fatigue associated with various survey efforts Work towards best practices in archives Provide guidance back to local producers Inform efforts at State Archives Engage community in discussion about archiving Harvest use cases for older data to sell value of archives

4 Survey Formulation and Implementation Survey Formulation (Community Engagement) Initial questions developed by NCSU Libraries, NCCGIA, and State Archives Process vetted by stakeholder organizations Initial test run by Local Government Committee Advisory Team Survey Implementation Used SurveyMonkey.com Total of 28 Questions Open Sept , 2006 Response rate: 57.6% (exceeded expectations)

5 Question #1 (the filter) Response: yes = 65.3%, no = 34.7%* (out of 57.6% response rate) * Respondents answering “No” automatically skip most of the remaining questions “Do you create periodic snapshots of any vector datasets for long-term retention and archiving?”

6 Framework Data Questions Targeting Key, Changing Framework Layers Parcels Street centerlines Jurisdictional boundaries Zoning Questions Capture frequency Format of snapshot Format conversion involved? Attributes saved with the geometry?

7 Other Questions Technical questions Storage environment? Onsite or offsite storage? Policy questions Provide access to snapshots? What business rules drive archive development? Other archives questions How far back do archives go? What other data layers saved? Disposition of superceded orthophotos? Scanning/rectification of analog maps or imagery?

8 Key Results: Capture Frequency

9

10 Key Results: Formats

11 Key Results: Formats

12 Key Results: Attributes

13 Key Results: Metadata

14 Key Results: Metadata

15 Key Results: Metadata

16 Key Results: Reasons for Archiving

17 Key Results: Digitization Efforts

18 Other Observations Process of survey formulation and implementation helped to socialize the problem of archiving data Local innovation needs to be mined further to inform development of best practices Business drivers for archiving need more study (i.e. stated adherence to retention policy) Exposure to peer practice encourages archiving Pronounced local interest in scanning/rectifying older analog maps and imagery

19 Questions? Steve Morris Head, Digital Library Initiatives Jeff Essic Data Services Librarian Web site: