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Metadata Interoperability and Crosswalks

Contents 1 Interoperability 2 Metadata Crosswalks 3 Example Metadata Crosswalks 4 References 5 Additional Resources 6 Subsections of this Article 7 Information about this article 8 Contact

Interoperability

There is no single universal metadata standard. Each community has its own requirements for describing resources and different standards (and profiles of these standards) have been developed to meet community needs. For example, the Dublin Core standard was developed to define a set of elements that could be used by authors to describe web-based documents. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 19115 standard defines a scheme for describing geographic information and services and specifically provides information about the spatial and temporal aspects of geographic data. It is important to remember that different metadata schemes can be used to describe the same resource and to serve a number of user groups.

Interoperability allows content or systems to work together through the use of agreed standards and specifications. Creating and maintaining metadata consistent with agreed standards is essential to ensure interoperability.^[1] It is one of the most important principles in metadata implementation as it facilitates the exchange and sharing of data and enables cross-domain searching.

Metadata Crosswalks

The interoperability and exchange of metadata is facilitated by crosswalks. A crosswalk is "a mapping of the elements, semantics, and syntax from one metadata scheme to those of another". ^[2] Crosswalks are commonly used to enable interoperability between metadata schemas and allow metadata created by one community to be used by another group that employs a different metadata standard. A crosswalk is a set of transformations applied to the metadata elements in a source metadata standard that result in the storage of appropriately modified content in the elements of a target metadata standard.

One of the problems of crosswalking is the different degrees of equivalency where there may not be a direct one-to-one mapping so there is no exact equivalent. Some elements could also overlap in meaning and scope and the resulting data conversion based on crosswalks could create quality problems.

Example Metadata Crosswalks

• DIF to ISO 19115 (source: GCMD)
• DIF to FGDC CSDGM (source: GCMD)
• FGDC CSDGM to ISO 19115 (source: FGDC)
• DIF to Dublin Core (source: GCMD)
• Mapping between metadata formats Comprehensive list of crosswalks from the UK Office for Library and Information Networking (UKOLN)

References

1. ↑ [1] Metadata Interoperability—What Is It, and Why Is It Important?
2. ↑ [2] Understanding Metadata

Additional Resources

• Moving Between Standards (Crosswalking). Introduction to crosswalks, including definitions and an outline of the crosswalk process - from MMIMarine Metadata Interoperability ProjectMarine Metadata Interoperability ProjectMarine Metadata Interoperability Project.

Subsections of this Article

No subsections available

Information about this article

Short title: Metadata Interoperability & Crosswalks

Description: Crosswalks are documents that map metadata elements between different metadata standards.

Expertise level: intermediate

Author: Greg Reed

Approval status: approved

Approved by: Greg Reed

Last change: 2009-10-2

Subsection of: Metadata Standards

Contact

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