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GIS (Geographic Information System)

A GIS (Geographic Information System) “enables the visualisation of the geographic aspects of a body of data, stored in one or more searchable databases…[It] is a combination of computer hardware and software linking geographic data with descriptive information.” 1. This data is used in various applications, including environmental monitoring and modelling, transportation, land surveying, mining and heritage applications, such as museums digitally exhibiting sensitive archaeological sites.

At present there is little dealing specifically or comprehensively with the preservation of this particular type of data, although some aspects of database preservation are applicable to GIS. Some long term preservation issues include a lack of open source formats and metadata standards, large data volume and complex data objects.

1. Core Technologies for the Cultural and Scientific Heritage Sector, January 2005. http://www.digicult.info/downloads/TWR3-lowres.pdf

Articles | Books | Events | Organisations and Websites | Online tutorial | Policies, Strategies & Guidelines | Projects and Case Studies | Bibliographies | Glossaries | Journals & Newsletters | Discussion Lists | Surveys | Tools | Evaluations

Articles

Advancing Geospatial Data Curation
Bose, Rajendra; Reitsma, Femka (Date Created: Nov 2005) (United Kingdom)
This paper delivered at PV 2005 discusses the issues in the emerging discipline of Geospatial data curation.
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/events/pv-2005/pv-2005-final-papers/030.pdf
Curating Geospatial Data
McGarva, Guy (Date Created: Apr 2006)
This briefing paper covers the issues in managing and curating geospace data. It discusses short term benefits and long term values, roles and responsibilities. There are also links to additional resources on the subject.
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resource/briefing-papers/curating-geospatial-data
/
Digital Curation Centre (DCC) briefing papers
Data Model and Architecture for Long-term Preservation
Frew, James; Janee, Greg; Mathena, Justin (Date Created: Apr 2008) (United States of America)
This paper describes a data model and architecture for the U.S. National Geospatial Data Archive based on co-archiving of object semantics, explicit storage of objects and semantics ans files and abstraction of the underlying storage system. Also described is an implementation of the architecture in a prototype archive running at UCSB.
http://www.ngda.org/research/Tech%20Arch/jcdl-paper.pdf
Paper to be delivered at JCDL 2008.
Historical Developing a 3D Digital Library for Spatial Data: Issues Identified and Description of Prototype
Rowe, Jeremy In: RLG DigiNews (Date Created: 15 Oct 2002)
This article describes the Partnership for Research in Spatial Modelling (PRISM) project at Arizona State University, including background on the use of three dimensional modelling in digital library settings and the prototype collection of scanned data describing such objects developed during the project.
http://worldcat.org/arcviewer/1/OCC/2007/08/08/0000070513/viewer/file2
089.html#feature1
Geospatial data sharing in UK Higher Education: Informal Repositories and user perspectives
Smith, Robin S. (Date Created: Apr 2007) (United Kingdom)
This report outlines research into the sharing of geospatial datasets by researchers based in UK universities as part of the GRADE project. The report contains an informal assessment of technologies used to share geographical information and novel, informal peer-to-peer data-sharing technologies and the GRADE project's demonstrator repository.
http://edina.ac.uk/projects/grade/Grade_reportRSSv2.pdf
Geospatial Web Services and Geoarchiving: New Opportunities and Challenges in Geographic Information Services
Morris, Steven P. (Date Created: 2006) (United States of America)
This article focuses on the role libraries should play in the development and utilisation of emerging geospatial web services and the long-term preservation of digital geospatial data with new distribution methods.
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/ncgdap/documents/MorrisLibraryTrendsFall2006.p
df
Available as PDF and in Library Trends, Vol 55, no. 2, Fall 2006
Investigation into Archiving Geospatial Data Formats
Banning, John; Hoebelheinrich, Nancy (Date Created: 11 Mar 2008) (United States of America)
This study investigated the kind of information required in archiving geospatial data and documents the research that was undertaken into metadata models and data elements. It compares three different approaches the FGDC content standard, PREMIS and the guidelines for Geospatial Electronic Records.
http://www.ngda.org/reports/NGDA%20Reports/InvestigateGeoDataFinal.pdf
Safekept
Legal Deposit of Digital Spatial Data in the United Kingdom
Fleet, Christopher (Date Created: 2003) (United Kingdom)
This article includes a description of the progress and problems with the current code of practice for the voluntary deposit of digital data in the UK and how it impacts on map libraries. The limitations of the Code are discussed within the context of the technical, practical and political reasons for its relative lack of success to date.
http://liber.library.uu.nl/publish/articles/000003/index.html
LIBER Quarterly, Vol. 13, no. 1 (2003). ISSN 1435-5205. Also available in .pdf.http://liber.library.uu.nl/publish/articles/000003/article.pdf
Life Beyond the Paper Graphic Index : Evaluating Geographic Retrieval Technologies for the Future Map Library
Fleet, Chris (Date Created: Oct 2008) (United Kingdom)
This article discusses web-mapping technologies, geographical retrieval technologies and alternatives for making available historical maps on the web. The National Library of Scotland website is used as a case study of the longer term priorities that should guide future work and practical compromises due to resource limitations.
http://liber.library.uu.nl/publish/articles/000253/article.pdf
Liber Quarterly Vol 18, Issue 2, 2008 pp 255-270 online at http://liber.library.uu.nl/
Safekept
Historical Long Term Spatial Data Preservation and Archiving : What are the Issues?
Bleakly, Denise R. (Date Created: Jan 2002) (United States of America)
This report discusses the activities of several United States government agencies relating to data management and preservation of geospatial data. It includes a general overview of the various digital preservation strategies and describes how geospatial data is unique and what makes it more difficult to archive compared to other types of data.
http://www.prod.sandia.gov/cgi-bin/techlib/access-control.pl/2002/0201
07.pdf
SAND Report 2002-0107
NGDA : National Geospatial Digital Archive
Stanford University and the University of California, Santa Barbara (Regularly Updated) (United States of America)
This project, run by Stanford University and the University of California Santa Barbara and funded by the Library of Congress under NDIIPP (National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program), has several aims. These include the creation of a federated network to archive geospatial data and the identification and collection of geospatial data at risk.
http://www.ngda.org/
NGDA : National Geospatial Digital Archive : an Interim Project Review Report
Sallis, Philip J. (Date Created: Feb 2006) (United States of America)
This project is run by Stanford University and the University of California Santa Barbara and funded by the Library of Congress under NDIIPP (National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program). This paper reviews the Project's documentation, activities, system architecture and development. The review concludes with several recommendations on the website, document tracking and the production of a working prototype.
http://www.ngda.org/reports/Sallis-Evaluation%20Repor.pdf
Organizational Needs for Managing and Preserving Geospatial Data
Chen, R.S.; Downs, R.R. (Date Created: Dec 2005)
This is a report of a study, based on 31 interviews of participants from government and non government sectors, of the current practices and future needs of managing and preserving geospatial data in the New York region.
http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/dsj/4/0/4_255/_article
Data Science Journal, vol. 4 (31December, 2005)
Preservation of State and Local Government Digital Geospatial Data: The North Carolina Geospatial Data Archiving Project
Morris, Steven P; Tuttle, James; Farrell, Robert (Date Created: 2006) (United States of America)
This paper describes the North Carolina Geospatial Data Archiving Project (NCGDAP), a 3 year project of North Carolina State University Libraries and North Carolina Center for Geographic Information and Analysis undertaken with NDIIPP which focuses on the collection and preservation of digital geospatial data resources from state and local government agencies.
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/ncgdap/documents/archiving2006.pdf
Available in PDF and from Proceeding of Archiving 2006, The Society for Imaging Science and Technology
Safekept
Historical Scientific Formats for Geospatial Data Preservation : a Study of Suitability and Performance
Choi, Vailin; Folk, Mike (Date Created: 08 Jan 2004)
This report discusses the preservation of federal geospatial data at the NARA (National Archives and Records Administration). Geospatial data is characterised by its large volume and variable formats. This report describes the various types of geospatial data, storage and access requirements of this data, and the suitability of HDF5 as a preservation format.
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/NARA/Sci_fmts_and_geodata_HDF.pdf
Technology Watch Report: Preserving Geospatial Data
Janée, Greg; McGarva, Guy; Morris, Steve (Date Created: May 2009)
This report (33 p.) provides an introduction to the challenges of managing and preserving two dimensional geospatial data for long term access. It is mainly aimed at repository managers, archivists and digital preservation specialists dealing with geospatial data. It discusses and makes initial recommendations in relation to file formats, management systems, metadata, digital rights management, standards bodies and working groups, technology and tools.
http://www.dpconline.org/docs/reports/dpctw09-01.pdf
DPC Technology Watch Series Report 09-01

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Books

North Carolina Geospatial Data Archiving Project : Interim Report
Morris, Steven P.; Zsolt, Nagy; Tutttle, Jim (Date Created: 01 Jun 2008) (United States of America)
This detailed document (140 pp) reports on the progress of the North Carolina Geospatial Data Archiving Project.
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/ncgdap/documents/NCGDAP_InterimReport_June2008
.pdf

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Events

Archiving 2008: Workshop on Archiving in Digital Cartography and Geoinformation: Preserving and Enabling Permanent Access to Cartographic Cultural Heritage
04 - 05 Dec 2008 , Landesarchiv Berlin, Berlin, Germany (Germany)
This worshop presented by DGfK Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kartographie, Sektion Berlin-Brandenburg in cooperation with CODATA Germany, the German National Committee on Data for Science and Technology and Landesarchiv Berlin will bring together experts to discuss digital archiving, archive use, permanent and long term archiving in the fields of cartography and geoinformation. Workshop reports in German and English are available from the website.
http://www.codata-germany.org/Archiving_2008/index.shtml
English language contributions will take part in a review process for the book „Archiving Cartographic Heritage“ in Springers Lecture Notes on Geoinformation and Cartography.
Archiving 2010 Workshop on Archiving in Digital Cartography and Geoinformation
10 - 12 Jun 2010 , Berlin
CODATA Germany, the German National Committee on Data for Science and Technology
(Germany)
This workshop is organised by DGfK Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kartographie, Sektion Berlin-Brandenburg in cooperation with CODATA Germany, the German National Committee on Data for Science and Technology.
http://www.codata-germany.org/Archiving_2010/
Maintaining Long Term Access to Geospatial Data
27 Oct 2006 , e-Science Institute, 15 South College Street, Edinburgh (United Kingdom)
Themes include citing geospatial databases, geospatial data formats and metadata, and geospatial repositories and storage.
http://www.nesc.ac.uk/esi/events/697/
Slides of presentations available from http://www.nesc.ac.uk/action/esi/contribution.cfm?Title=697

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Organisations and Websites

Geospatial Electronic Records
CIESIN (Center for International Earth Science Information Network, Columbia University) (Date Created: 2004) (United States of America)
This website, developed through the Managing and Preserving Geospatial Electronic Records project and funded by NARA (United States National Archives and Records Administration), aims to identify and disseminate practical policies, techniques, standards, and procedures to manage, preserve, and provide access to electronic records that have significant geospatial components, especially those generated by a Geographic Information System (GIS).
http://www.ciesin.columbia.edu/ger/
GRADE : Scoping a Geospatial Repository for Academic Deposit and Extraction
EDINA National Data Centre (Last Updated: 2008) (United Kingdom)
The GRADE project (funded from 2005-2007) was developed by a consortia headed by EDINA with primary partners the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Research Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law and the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton. GRADE is a demonstrator repository and is part of a scoping exercise for the establishment of a sustainable infrastructure for geospatial data reuse.
http://edina.ac.uk/projects/grade/index.html
Open Geospatial Consortium : OGC
Open Geospatial Consortium (Regularly Updated)
The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is an international consortium of organizations which promotes the development and use of advanced open systems standards and techniques in the area of geoprocessing and related information technologies. Encouraging standard interface and encoding specifications enables interoperability among and between diverse geospatial data stores, services, and applications.
http://www.opengeospatial.org/

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Policies, Strategies & Guidelines

Collection Development Policy for the National Geospatial Digital Archive
National Geospatial Digital Archive (Date Created: Nov 2006) (United States of America)
The Collection Development Policy of the U.S. National Geospatial Digital Archive outlines the material that will be collected, format, language, metadata and collaboration with other agencies.
http://www.ngda.org/research/Collections/NGDA_Collection_Development_P
olicy_11_06_final.doc
Historical Collection Development Policy for the National Geospatial Digital Archive (DRAFT 20 June 2006)
National Geospatial Digital Archive (Date Created: 20 Jun 2006) (United States of America)
This draft collection development policy outlines the material that will be collected, format, language, metadata and collaboration with other agencies. The final version of the CDP was published November 2006.
http://www.ngda.org/reports/NGDA%20Reports/CDP_Draft.doc
Data Model for Managing and Preserving Geospatial Electronic Records : Version 1
Center for International Earth Science Information Network (Date Created: Jun 2005)
This data model is part of the Managing and Preserving Geospatial Records project which was conducted by CIESIN (Center for International Earth Science Information Network). The data model includes a descriptive document regarding the tables and fields for storing metadata to aid in the management and preservation of geospatial objects; an E-R (Entity-Relationship) diagram; a data dictionary and crosswalks to current standards and requirements.
http://www.ciesin.columbia.edu/ger/DataModelV1_20050620.pdf
Historical GIS : Guide to Good Practice
Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS) In: AHDS Guides to Good Practice (Date Created: 1998) (United Kingdom)
This guide deals with creating, documenting and archiving archaeological Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The role of the Archaeological Data Service (ADS) in preserving and providing long term access to the archaeological datasets is discussed. Migration and data refreshing as digital preservation approaches are also discussed.
http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/project/goodguides/gis/index.html
Guide to Managing Geospatial Electronic Records : Version 1
Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) (Date Created: Jun 2005) (United States of America)
This guide is part of the Managing and Preserving Geospatial Electronic Records project conducted by the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University. The guide offers recommendations for managing and preserving geospatial data and related electronic records. Areas covered include infrastructure issues such as policies and planning; data accession issues such as selection, authenticity and intellectual property rights; and custodianship issues such as metadata, media migration and preservation masters.
http://www.ciesin.columbia.edu/ger/GuideToManagingGERv1Final.pdf
Preservation Handbook : Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
Clarke, Jo; Mitcham, Jenny (Date Created: Jun 2005)
This publication is part of a series of preservation handbooks published by the AHDS (Arts and Humanities Data Service). This handbook covers the significant characteristics of GIS files, common formats and best practice. The goal of the handbook is to instruct AHDS staff on how best to preserve digital objects in accordance with "a migration based preservation approach, incorporating migration to standard formats during ingest". Although this document is written for AHDS staff, the information is useful to the broader digital preservation community.
http://ahds.ac.uk/preservation/gis-preservation-handbook.pdf
Version 0.5. Also available as RTF - http://ahds.ac.uk/preservation/gis-preservation-handbook.rtf

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Projects and Case Studies

GeoMAPP: Geospatial Multistate Archive and Preservation Partnership
North Carolina Office of Archives and History (Regularly Updated) (United States of America)
This partnership between the Library of Congress and state geospatial and archives staff from North Carolina, Kentucky and Utah, aims to address the preservation of “at risk” and temporally significant digital geospatial content. The project focuses on identifying, collecting, and replicating large volumes of geospatial data among several states to promote preservation and access.
http://www.geomapp.net/
GRADE : Scoping a Geospatial Repository for Academic Deposit and Extraction
EDINA National Data Centre (Last Updated: 2008) (United Kingdom)
The GRADE project (funded from 2005-2007) was developed by a consortia headed by EDINA with primary partners the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Research Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law and the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton. GRADE is a demonstrator repository and is part of a scoping exercise for the establishment of a sustainable infrastructure for geospatial data reuse.
http://edina.ac.uk/projects/grade/index.html
North Carolina Geospatial Data Archiving Project : NCGDAP
NCSU Libraries (Regularly Updated) (United States of America)
This joint project of the North Carolina State University Libraries and the North Carolina Center for Geographic Information and Analysis will focus on collection and preservation of government digital geospatial data resources such as GIS data, digital orthophotography, digital maps and tabular data. The project was conducted in collaboration with NDIIPP. The objectives of the project include: acquisition of at risk geospatial 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 OpenGeospatial Consortium specifications and the development of a model for data archiving. Project period was initially Oct 2004 to September 2007 has been extended through March 2009.
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/ncgdap/index.html
Old Maps Online : Open-source, Antique Maps & Historical Documents
Old Maps Online (Date Created: May 2008) (Czech Republic)
This 4 year project (2008-2011) aims to develop freely available/open source tools and methodologies to allow libraries, archives and museums to publish scanned old maps in both GIS and a user friendly, standards based way. The project is supported by the Moravian Library in Brno with financial support from the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic as a R&D project# DC08P02OUK006.
http://blog.oldmapsonline.org/

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Surveys

New North Carolina Geospatial Data Archiving Project: 2008 Local Government Geoarchives Survey
North Carolina Geospatial Data Archiving Project (Date Created: 01 Feb 2009) (United States of America)
This survey was conducted by the NC Center for Geographic Information & Analysis under a Partnership with National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) and the North Carolina State University Libraries. It was a follow up to an earlier survey conducted in 2006 Frequency of Geospatial Data Capture, which aimed to assess the prevalence and maturity of preservation efforts for geospatial data in US local government agencies.
http://ncgicc.org/Portals/3/documents/2008_LocalGovt_GeoArchives_Surve
y_Results%20%282%29.pdf
Organizational Needs for Managing and Preserving Geospatial Data
Chen, R.S.; Downs, R.R. (Date Created: Dec 2005)
This is a report of a study, based on 31 interviews of participants from government and non government sectors, of the current practices and future needs of managing and preserving geospatial data in the New York region.
http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/dsj/4/0/4_255/_article
Data Science Journal, vol. 4 (31December, 2005)

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Tools

Spatial Knowledge Base Server
Spatial Knowledge Company (Date Created: 2005)
Purpose : The purpose of the SKB server is to digitally archive and track documents and spatial data. The software was written to improve access to cultural heritage information though the use of digital archiving, search technology, and GIS.
Documentation : The documentation and software downloads are available from Sourceforge https://sourceforge.net/projects/skb
http://www.spatialknowledgecompany.com/software.jsp

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