JISC

Start date: 1 June 2002

End date: 31 May 2003

Funding programme: Infrastructure programme

Project website: http://hds.essex.ac.uk/go-geo/

This project is part of the Enhancing JISC data services for Teaching and Learning project cluster in this particular programme. The main focus of projects in this cluster is to improve use of existing JISC owned resources through the JISC data services for learning and teaching.

This project has been superceded by  Phase 3 of the project.

Background

Geo-spatial data is a term used to cover any data with a geographic reference - for example, an Ordnance Survey National Grid reference, a postal address, a place name or the name of an administrative area.

Increasing amounts of geo-spatial data are being created within Higher Education. At the same time, demand for access to geo-spatial data is growing, as tools, such as GIS, become more commonly available. Two major barriers confront the potential user of geo-spatial data: how to find out what data exist, and how to ascertain their quality and suitability for use. To overcome these barriers, comprehensive, standardised metadata, available through a web-searchable database, is needed.

The Geo-data Portal Project (Phase 1) was funded by the JISC to investigate the demand for and the issues surrounding the establishment of a Z39.50 compliant resource discovery tool for geo-spatial data for UK academia. The project was a joint one between EDINA, part of the Data Library, University of Edinburgh and the History Data Service, part of the UK Data Archive, University of Essex. MIMAS and the Archaeology Data Service (ADS) were involved in an advisory capacity.

At the request of the JISC, the scope of the project was extended to consider the requirements for a Geo-data Portal. At its core a portal is a resource discovery tool that allows the identification and retrieval of metadata describing the content, quality, condition and other characteristics of geo-spatial data.

A Geo-data Portal extends the geo-spatial data discovery function by the addition of other functions that add value to the data identified and retrieved. Primarily this means providing the means to find other related resources of use to the user. These resources can be either local to the portal or found by searching the JISC Information Environment and other online information services.

A key aspect of the portal is that these resources can be found using spatial searching as well as the more traditional topic or keyword forms of searching.  A gazetteer is therefore required to support the Portal, as most searches will involve spatial searching and users will need a rich resource of place names. The service that will be developed will use the gazetteer which the sister project to this one, the Geo-Crosswalk Project, will establish.

The project is closely tied to a national initiative, the National Geographic Data Framework (NGDF). The NGDF was established to address similar barriers to the discovery and use of geo-spatial data resources that exist at a national level in the UK. It is a loose consortium of organisations taken from a diverse background and includes government, private organisations and research institutions.

Phase 2 of the Geo-Data Portal Project, named Go-Geo!, is a one year project between EDINA and the History Data Service. This has the goal of developing the portal allowing the discovery of geographic data and related resources within and beyond the HE community.

See full documentation for Phase 1 of the project.

Aims and Objectives

The central aims of the phase 2 project are:

• To develop a geo-spatial portal suitable for roll out as a full service.
• Promote the possibilities of a fully functioning service and act as a proof of concept.
• To consider how the portal can be integrated into the JISC Information Environment.

The key objectives are to:

• Build a demonstrator, focussing on the UK, which includes:
  • Cross-searching of
    • A database local to the portal
    • An existing, remote, structured geo-data directory service to find geo-data
    • An existing resource catalogue containing geo-related resources
    • The NGDF Gateway and its directory services
  • Simple query interfaces, including a map-based search facility, that allow users to search for geo-spatial data and resources by subject/topic, geographic location, date and resource type
  • Support for both structured-controlled vocabulary searching and uncontrolled vocabulary searching.
  • Support for the Z39.50 Protocol for searching and record retrieval using the GEO Profile and Bath Profiles, which define the Attribute Set and acceptable Record Syntaxes
  • Output of metadata as FE/HE Application Profile of the NGDF Discovery Metadata Guidelines, the NGDF Discovery Metadata Guidelines and the Dublin Core, using XML as the transfer format
  • The use of XSL Transform to cross-walk between standards
• Assess the needs of the stakeholders for a full portal service and promote the possibilities of a fully functioning service through focus groups and demonstrations at conferences etc.
• Develop relationships with relevant initiatives in geo-spatial searching, specifically the NGDF and the RDN Geography and Environment Hub
• Investigate:
  • The use of the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) to disclose metadata as an output from the portal. The use of OAI-MHP to import data to the portal will also be investigated.
  • How access could be provided to 'deep' geo-spatial resources (data mining) and provide a demonstration of this functionality if possible
  • How a comprehensive service would include search and browse, visualisation, exploitation and analysis of geo-spatial data
• Suggest ways in which data can be kept up-to date, and what kind of quality assurance on data input will be required, including the provision of web based interfaces for online updating

Outputs

The key outcomes of the project will be a:

• functioning scalable demonstrator portal service that has the potential to be fully integrated into the JISC Information Environment
• report on who the relevant stakeholders are and how the needs of the user groups will be met

The project will build a demonstrator portal service. This will be a Z39.50 compliant resource discovery tool for geo-spatial data for the UK tertiary education and research community. In a fully operational service, these resources will be located in either local or remote directories, catalogues, databases, web and message servers.

The architecture of the portal will be an extension of the Gateway model. A Geo-data Gateway will underpin the Portal. In the longer term, this will comprise compliant metadata service providers, data providers with metadata but no metadata services and data providers with data who require their metadata to be hosted by service providers. Users will search from a single point (a ‘hub’) and a search will be directed towards distributed services (the Geo-data Network) hosting metadata via a Gateway. Under this model, it is assumed that JISC data centres which hold significant volumes of geo-spatial data will, in time, establish their own directory hosting metadata. The Z39.50 Protocol will be used for searching and record retrieval using the GEO Profile and Bath Profiles, which define the Attribute Set and acceptable Record Syntaxes. Metadata will be provided and stored using the FE/HE Application Profile of the NGDF Metadata Guidelines, developed in the feasibility project. Metadata will be output in the following formats: FE/HE Application Profile of the NGDF Metadata Guidelines, NGDF Discovery Metadata (to provide to the NGDF Gateway) and the Dublin Core. The transfer format for the metadata should be XML, and XSLT will be employed to achieve cross-walking between standards.

It is hoped that version 1 of the portal, demonstrating basic searching of the NGDF Gateway and its directory services, will be available during September 2002.

Project partner

Cressida Chappell
History Data Service
UK Data Archive
University of Essex
Colchester CO4 3SQ

Tel: +44 (0)1206 872326
Fax: +44 (0)1206 872003

Email: hds@essex.ac.uk