Preservation of State and Local Government Digital Geospatial Data: The North Carolina Geospatial Data Archiving Project Steven P. Morris, James Tuttle, and Robert Farrell North Carolina State University Libraries

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Preservation of State and Local Government
Digital Geospatial DataThe North Carolina
Geospatial Data Archiving ProjectSteven P.
Morris, James Tuttle, and Robert FarrellNorth
Carolina State University Libraries
IST Archiving 2006
May 24, 2006
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Geospatial data types Vector data
Time series Parcel Boundary Changes 2001-2004
North Raleigh, NC
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Geospatial data types Aerial imagery
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Geospatial data types Aerial imagery
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Geospatial data types Aerial imagery
85 NC counties with orthophotos 1-5 flights per
county 30-200 gb per flight
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Geospatial data types Tabular data (w/vector)
Economic, infrastructure, and ethnographic data
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Todays geospatial data as tomorrows cultural
heritage
Future uses of data are difficult to anticipate
(as with Sanborn Maps).
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Geospatial Data Risks

• Producer focus on current data
• Future support of data formats in question
• Shift to web services- and API-based access
• Inadequate or nonexistent metadata
• Increasing use of spatial databases for data
  management

Many digital archiving challenges
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Challenge Vector Data Formats

• No widely-supported, open vector formats for
  geospatial data
• Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS) not widely
  supported
• Geography Markup Language (GML) diversity of
  application schemas and profiles threatens
  permanent access
• Spatial Databases
• The sum is more than the whole of the parts, and
  the sum is very difficult to preserve
• Can export individual data layers for curation
• Some thinking of using the spatial database as
  the primary archival platform

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Challenge Cartographic Representation
Counterpart to the map is not just the dataset
but also models, symbolization, classification,
annotation, etc.
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Challenge Geospatial Web Services

• How to capture records from decision-
• making processes?
• Possible Atlas collections from automated
• image capture
• Web 2.0 impact Emerging tiling and
• caching schemes (archive target?)

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NC Geospatial Data Archiving Project

• Partnership between university library (NCSU) and
  state agency (NCCGIA), with Library of Congress
  under the National Digital Information
  Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP)
• One of 8 initial NDIIPP partnerships
• Focus on state and local geospatial content in
  North Carolina (state demonstration)
• Tied to NC OneMap initiative, which provides for
  seamless access to data, metadata, and
  inventories
• Objective engage existing state/federal
  geospatial data infrastructures in preservation

Serve as catalyst for discussion within industry
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Different Ways to Approach Preservation

• Technical solutions How do we archive acquired
  content over the long term?
• Cultural/Organizational solutions How do we make
  the data more preservableand more prone to be
  archivedfrom point of production?

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Technical Approaches

• Receive data as is variety of distribution
  methods
• Migration of some at-risk formats
• Metadata remediation, standardization, and
  synchronization
• Distilling complex objects into repository ingest
  items (not easy)
• Using DSpace for demonstration purposes
• In the development use METS record as dormant
  item brain within the repository

Some unsustainable activities for learning
experience
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Cultural/Organizational Approaches

• Feedback to metadata outreach program
• Feedback to coordinating bodies on adherence to
  content standards
• Engage existing spatial data infrastructure in
  archiving and preservation
• Engage software vendors and standards community
• Cross-fertilize with other national archiving
  efforts

Current use and data sharing requirements not
archiving needs drive improved preservability
of content and improvement of metadata
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Project Status
Cultivating a commercial market for older data.
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Questions?
Contact Steve Morris Head, Digital Library
Initiatives NCSU Libraries ph (919)
515-1361 Steven_Morris_at_ncsu.edu http//www.lib.nc
su.edu/ncgdap