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Improving Access to Geo-spatial Data
Two Feasibility Studies into the Provision of a Gazetteer Service and a
Geo-spatial Portal
The History Data Service is pleased to announce that Joint Information
Systems Committee (JISC) is funding two feasibility studies into the
provision of a gazetteer service and a geo-spatial portal which will be
conducted by EDINA, the History Data Service and the Data Archive between
July 2000 and March 2001.
The Geo-data Browser Project will investigate the feasibility of
establishing of a Z39.50 compliant geo-spatial portal for UK HE as part of
the Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER)
[http://www.jisc.ac.uk/pub99/dner_desc.html]. Increasing amounts of
geo-spatial data are being created within UK HE and demand for access is
growing within the social sciences and beyond. Two major barriers confront
the potential user of geo-spatial data resources: first, how to find out
what geo-spatial data exist given the high scale, diversity and complexity
of data available; second, having located it, how to ascertain its quality
and suitability for use. The solution to overcoming these barriers, which
will be investigated by this project, is to provide comprehensive,
standardised metadata, available through a geo-spatial portal for UK HE. A
geo-spatial portal would provide researchers and teaching staff with a way
of identifying what geo-spatial exists within UK HE, and it would form part
of the National Geo-spatial Data Framework Gateway
[http://www.ngdf.org.uk/]. It would also bring the ever-increasing amount of
geo-spatial data to the attention of the research, teaching and learning
communities and help to provide new opportunities for both research and
teaching, using these resources.
The Geo-Crosswalk Project will assess the feasibility of developing and
providing an online, Z39.50 compliant, fast, scalable and extensible British
and Irish gazetteer service, which would play a crucial role supporting
geographic searching in the Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER)
. Geographic searching is a powerful information retrieval tool within the
social sciences and beyond. Most information resources pertain to specific
geographic areas and are either explicitly or implicitly geo-referenced.
Geography is frequently used as a search parameter, and there is an
increasing demand from users, data providers, archives, libraries, and
museums for more powerful geographic searching. A gazetteer service would
assist metadata creators by providing a means of converting geographic names
to a standard spatial coding scheme. It would parse metadata records to
identify geographic names (current and historical), and convert them into
geographic 'footprints' expressed in a standard spatial coding scheme such
as latitude and longitude or the Ordnance Survey National Grid. A gazetteer
service would also make it possible for information retrieval systems to
support a full range of geographic search options. It would provide a
mechanism by which information retrieval systems could translate the spatial
part of any query into the native spatial coding scheme.
Cressida Chappell, Acting Head, History Data Service, Data Archive,
University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, CO4 3SQ, Phone +44 (0)1206
873984, Fax +44 (0)1206 872003, email [log in to unmask],
http://hds.essex.ac.uk/
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