NCGDAP (North Carolina Geospatial Data Archiving Project)
The North Carolina Geospatial Data Archiving Project ran from October 2004 to February 2010. The joint project of the North Carolina State University Libraries and the North Carolina Center for Geographic Information and Analysis focused on collection and preservation of digital geospatial data resources from state and local government agencies in North Carolina.
Overview
The objectives of the project included:
- Identification of available resources through the NC OneMap data inventory
- Acquisition of at risk geospatial data, including static data such as digital orthophotos as well time series data such as local land records and assessment data
- Development of a digital repository architecture for geospatial data, using open source software tools such as DSpace
- Enhancement of existing geospatial metadata with additional preservation metadata
- Investigation of automated identification and capture of data resources using emerging OpenGeospatial Consortium specifications for client interaction with data on remote servers
- Development of a model for data archiving and time series development
The work initially started in North Carolina with NCGDAP is being continued by the GeoMAPP (Geospatial Multistate Archive and Preservation Partnership) effort, a partnership between the Library of Congress and state geospatial and archives staff from North Carolina, Kentucky and Utah. The partners include: the North Carolina Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (CGIA), North Carolina State Archives, North Carolina State University Libraries, Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives (KDLA), Kentucky Division of Geographic Information (DGI), Utah Division of Archives, Utah Automated Geographic Reference Center (AGRC), and Montana State Library.
In December 2000, Congress authorized the Library of Congress to develop and execute a congressionally approved plan for a National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program. A $99.8 million congressional appropriation was made to establish the program. The goal is to build a network throughout the country of committed partners working through a preservation architecture with defined roles and responsibilities. The complete text of the "Plan for the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program" is available at www.digitalpreservation.gov. This includes an explanation of how the plan was developed, who the Library worked with to develop the plan and the key components of the digital preservation infrastructure. The plan was approved by Congress in December 2002. The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world. Through its National Digital Library (NDL) Program, it is also one of the leading providers of noncommercial intellectual content on the Internet (www.loc.gov). The NDL Program's flagship American Memory project, in collaboration with other institutions nationwide, makes freely available more than 9 million American historical items.
How We Did It
Research topics include:
Preservation Metadata
In addition to incorporating metadata developed in accordance with the FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata, the project will investigate the development of additional administrative, technical, and descriptive metadata elements for use in the archival process. One possible approach will involve implementation of the PREMIS (PREservation Metadata: Implementation Strategies) data dictionary for preservation metadata. The project will also investigate packaging of the combined metadata elements into METS (Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard) records.
File Formats
A wide range of vector and image formats will be encountered in the project domain. In the case of vector content, nearly all data will occur in proprietary formats, notably the ESRI Shapefile, Coverage, and Geodatabase formats. The absence of an open, reliable option for vector content will pose a key challenge to the project. The use of Geography Markup Language 3.x application schema as an open, XML-based option for data storage will be investigated.
Time-Version Management
Many of the acquired resources--particularly county and municipal vector data--are updated on a routine basis. One project challenge will center on managing the relationships between these time-versioned objects. As it is assumed that individual versioned objects will wander from the original archive, repository-independent approaches to relationship management will be explored.
Archival Repository Architecture
The project will investigate the digital repository technical requirements of geospatial content; however, a new digital repository software environment will not be developed. The project will investigate the interplay of geospatial content with readily available digital repository software environments in order to learn whether specialized environments are required for geospatial content. Initially the DSpace digital repository software will be used. One or more other environments such as FEDORA (Flexible Extensible Digital Object and Repository Architecture) be explored in other project stages. There is a strong desire to develop the collection in a software-independent manner.
Geospatial Web Services
The project will investigate the use of emerging Open Geospatial Consortium specifications in the process of archive development. Potential applications include automated map atlas development using Web Map Service (WMS) and vector data capture using Web Feature Service (WFS). One project goal will be to contribute preservation and archive-development use cases to the development of GeoDRM (Geo Digital Rights Management) initiative, which will address rights-related access issues for both services and data files.
Spatial Databases
Spatial databases are increasingly used to store not just feature and attribute data but also additional information such as annotation, behaviors, relationships, and topology. The inability to export some of these elements into widely used vector formats limits the preservation options. In the target domain, the ESRI Geodatabase format is used extensively. The project will investigate methods of archiving spatial databases in both their entirety and as extracted components.
Team
Steve MorrisFormer Associate Director for the Digital Library