NEII metadata schema
What is NEII Metadata?
NEII Metadata are descriptive information about NEII datasets or services to support search and data discovery by people and systems. The NEII catalogue stores structured metadata based on the ISO 19115 metadata standard. The NEII catalogue is based on open source technology conforming to specifications published by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and uses the GeoNetwork application for creating, managing and publishing structured metadata. NEII metadata are also available through a web service endpoint using the Catalogue Service for the Web standard (CSW). CSW is adopted as the NEII standard metadata search interface. It supports metadata federation and related applications that implement the interface such as data.gov.au and Research Data Australia.
Core NEII Metadata
The NEII has established an NEII metadata profile based on ISO 19115 and the ANZLIC Metadata Profile which defines both the mandatory and recommended metadata elements from the ISO19115 standard. The profile has been developed to ensure alignment with related metadata catalogues including data.gov.au and Research Data Australia. The following metadata content is mandatory for all NEII metadata records. Records that do not provide this information may not be rendered or supported in NEII.
| Element | Explanation | ISO 19115 location |
|---|---|---|
| Identifier | A globally unique identifier for this metadata record (a GUID). If the metadata record is created in a system like Geonetwork the identifier will be automatically generated. Alternatively, a GUID can be created using an online service such as https://www.guidgenerator.com/. | MD_Metadata.fileIdentifier |
| Title | A title for the dataset or service(s) that is/are being described by the metadata record. The title should be kept to a few words for display purposes and should contain critical information about the resource. | For Datasets: MD_Metadata.identificationInfo > MD_DataIdentification.citation > CI_Citation.title For Services: MD_Metadata.identificationInfo > SV_ServiceIdentification.citation > CI_Citation.title |
| Abstract | A textual description of the dataset or service(s) that is/are being described by the metadata record. The abstract will be displayed in full and while it can be several paragraphs long it should not be too long. | For Datasets: MD_Metadata.identificationInfo > MD_DataIdentification.abstract For Services: MD_Metadata.identificationInfo > SV_ServiceIdentification.abstract |
| Scope Code | An indication of whether this record describes a dataset or a service. A value taken from the CI_ScopeCode codelist at: http://www.isotc211.org/2005/resources/Codelist/gmxCodelists.xml | MD_Metadata.hierarchyLevel@codeListValue |
| Date stamp | A timestamp which indicated when this version of the metadata was produced. The dateStamp may be used by some harvesting systems to determine whether or not a record has been updated. | MD_Metadata.dateStamp |
| Date of last change | The date the metadata was last updated. Although in most cases this will be identical to the date stamp it may differ. | For Datasets: MD_Metadata.identificationInfo.MD_DataIdentification> citation.CI_Citation.date > CI_Date.date where CI_Date.dateType = ‘revision’ For Services: MD_Metadata.identificationInfo > SV_ServiceIdentification > citation.CI_Citation.date > CI_Date.date where CI_Date.dateType = ‘revision’ |
| Contact Organisation | The organisation to contact about this metadata record. This may differ from the organisation responsible for the dataset or service described by the metadata record (see also Custodian) | MD_Metadata.contact > CI_Responsibleparty.organisationName |
| Contact Role | The role of the named contact using a value from the CI_RoleCode codelist at: http://www.isotc211.org/2005/resources/Codelist/gmxCodelists.xml | MD_Metadata.contact > CI_ResponsibleParty.role |
| Custodian | The organisation which is responsible for the dataset or service described by this metadata record. This may differ from the organisation responsible for the metadata record (see also Contact Organisation) | For Datasets: MD_Metadata.identificationInfo > MD_DataIdentification.pointOfContact > ResponsibleParty.organisationName For Services: MD_Metadata.identificationInfo > SV_ServiceIdentification> pointOfContact > ResponsibleParty.organisationName |
| Geographic Extent | The spatial extent of the data contained in the dataset or service. This is described using a bounding box and may be displayed on a map by some harvesting organisations such as data.gov.au or Research Data Australia. | For Datasets: MD_Metadata.identificationInfo > MD_DataIdentification.extent > EX_Extent.geographicElement > EX_GeographicBoundingBox For Services: MD_Metadata.identificationInfo > SV_ServiceIdentification.extent > EX_Extent.geographicElement > EX_GeographicBoundingBox |
| Language | The language of the dataset or service selected from the codelist at: http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/ Note: three letter language codes are to be used. | MD_Metadata.language > LanguageCode |
| Keywords | Keywords used to define the metadata. Keywords from the NEII environmental themes vocabulary shall be used (http://www.neii.gov.au/vocabularies/nemsr/environmentalTheme). In addition, the keyword 'neii.gov.au' should be present. a Other vocabularies such as ANZLIC may also be used. | For Datasets: MD_Metadata.identificationInfo > MD_DataIdentification.descriptiveKeywords > MD_Keywords.keyword For Services: MD_Metadata.identificationInfo > SV_ServiceIdentification. descriptiveKeywords > MD_Keywords.keyword |
| Service Endpoint(s) | URLs to services (data services, map services) described by this metadata record. | For Datasets: MD_Metadata.distributionInfo > > MD_Distribution.transferOptions > MD_DigitalTransferOptions.online > CI_OnlineResource.linkage.URL For Services: MD_Metadata.identificationInfo > SV_ServiceIdentification.containsOperations > SV_OperationMetadata.connectPoint> CI_OnlineResource.linkage.URL |
Recommended NEII Metadata
The following additional metadata content is recommended for NEII metadata records but is not mandatory. Some of this information will be rendered in NEII, some of it will be visible when records are harvested by other catalogues such as data.gov.au and Research Data Australia.
| Element | Explanation | ISO 19115 location |
|---|---|---|
| Publication Date | Date the metadata was first published. | For Datasets: MD_Metadata.identificationInfo.MD_DataIdentification> citation.CI_Citation.date > CI_Date.date where CI_Date.dateType = ‘publication’ For Services: MD_Metadata.identificationInfo > SV_ServiceIdentification > citation.CI_Citation.date > CI_Date.date where CI_Date.dateType = ‘publication’ |
| Creation Date | Date the metadata was created. | For Datasets: MD_Metadata.identificationInfo.MD_DataIdentification> citation.CI_Citation.date > CI_Date.date where CI_Date.dateType = ‘creation’ For Services: MD_Metadata.identificationInfo > SV_ServiceIdentification > citation.CI_Citation.date > CI_Date.date where CI_Date.dateType = ‘creation’ |
| Lineage Statement | History or provenance information about the dataset. For example, information about how the data was gathered or derived. | MD_Metadata.dataQualityInfo > DQ_DataQuality.lineage > LI_Lineage.statement |
| Contact Individual | The name of a contact person for the dataset or service. | MD_Metadata.contact > CI_ResponsibleParty.individualName |
| Contact Position | The job title of a contact for the dataset or service(s). | MD_Metadata.contact > CI_ResponsibleParty.positionName |
| Contact Phone | The phone number of a contact for the dataset or service(s). | MD_Metadata.contact > CI_ResponsibleParty.phone |
| Contact Address | The postal address of a contact for the dataset or service(s). | MD_Metadata.contact > CI_ResponsibleParty.address |
| Contact Email | The email address of a contact for the dataset or service(s). | MD_Metadata.contact > CI_ResponsibleParty.address > CI_Address.electronicMailAddress |
| License | The licence terms for this dataset or service(s). | MD_LegalConstraints |
| Topic Category | The topic category of the dataset or service. Taken from the MD_TopicCategoryCode codelist at http://www.isotc211.org/2005/resources/Codelist/gmxCodelists.xml | For Datasets: MD_Metadata.identificationInfo > MD_DataIdentification.topicCategory For Services: MD_Metadata.identificationInfo > SV_ServiceIdentification.topicCategory |
| Temporal Extent | The temporal range this dataset or service covers (start date and end date). | For Datasets: MD_Metadata.identificationInfo > MD_DataIdentification.extent > EX_Extent.temporalElement For Services: MD_Metadata.identificationInfo > SV_ServiceIdentification.extent > EX_Extent.temporalElement |