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NCDDC works closely with the broader metadata community and standards organizations in the development of these standards; and to provide assistance in the implementation of diverse metadata standards for local, state and national organizations as needed.

Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)

The FGDC is an interagency committee that promotes the coordinated development, use, sharing, and dissemination of geospatial data on a national basis. The FGDC Web site also provides information on geospatial metadata standards, education and training materials, and recommendations on available metadata tools. See below for additional online metadata resources.

  • FGDC Metadata Standards include the Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata, Vers. 2 (FGDC-STD-001-1998), the CSDGM Workbook, and the CSDGM Graphical Representation.
  • Profiles and Extensions of the FGDC CSDGM include the Biological Data Profile of the Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata, the Metadata Profile for Shoreline Data, and the Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata: Extensions for Remote Sensing Metadata.

NCDDC participates through the FGDC Metadata Working Group, and has assisted in providing Introduction to Geospatial Metadata training workshops, participated in the NAP Metadata Review, and has provided input to the NAP schema development and to the implementation of the Feature Catalogue in the NAP.

NCDDC has defined a set of extended elements of the FGDC CSDGM for use in the Center's data catalog, the details of which are outlined in this on-line reference titled NCDDC Metadata Profile Version 2.0 .

International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

Machine Readable Catalog - MARC

The MARC formats are standards developed for the representation and communication of bibliographic and related information in machine-readable form. MARC formats are used widely in the library community.

NCDDC's MERMAid supports a MARC export from an FGDC CSDGM record. The Ocean Exploration Program also uses this transformation to provide MARC records to the NOAA Library.

Keyword Lists, Controlled Vocabularies and Thesauri

The use of standardized keywords, controlled vocabularies and thesauri, such as those listed below, can help to standardize metadata and optimize data discovery.

Additional Metadata Resources

  • US Geological Survey (USGS): This web site provides metadata information and such software tools as cns, mp, and Tkme. A guide for creating and reviewing metadata, titled Metadata in Plain Language, is also available.
  • Marine Metadata Interoperability (MMI): The goal of MMI is to support collaborative research in the marine science domain, by simplifying the incredibly complex world of metadata into specific, straightforward guidance. MMI encourages scientists and data managers at all levels to apply good metadata practices from the start of a project, by providing the best guidance and resources for data management, and developing advanced metadata tools and services needed by the community.