Dear Maureen (and all the list),
Thanks for this. I knew the Australians were very pro-active in promoting ISO standards - my colleagues in Australian Antarctic Division have been very active in promoting ISO 19110 to create a feature catalogue for use in Antarctica, and I expect a lot of the work on ISO 19110 would be mirrored in a profile of ISO 19115. The Antarctic community is steadily moving down this road, and we see it as vital for a multi-national community.
It is interesting, though, that our work on ISO 19110 has raised some philosophical and linguistic differences between different branches of the English speaking world. One I rather liked was that our Australian colleagues replaced the term "lake" with the term "water storage", as "lake" was felt to exclude non-natural lakes . Now, "water storage" may be a neutral term in Australia, but in England, Canada and the USA we feel that it heavily implies a man-made structure - the inverse of the problem it was meant to solve! "Lake" in non-Australian English was felt to cover both natural and man-made lakes, whereas "water storage" was felt to mean only a man-made structure. So, in international circles it is very important to ensure that vocabularies represent majority English usage, and that terms are accompanied by very clear descriptions of their meaning. Of course in Antarctica we also have to consider other languages, but we are likely to decide that one version (in this case the English version) will be definitive, and that translations, although encouraged are not definitive.
Best wishes
Paul Cooper
>>> [log in to unmask] 24 March 2005 02:31:59 >>>
Dear Paul
I am a member of the ANZLIC Metadata Working Group which saw its
revision of the Australian Government ISO 19115 Metadata Profile
endorsed on 16 December 2004 by the governing group, the Spatial Data
management Group. This was profiled at a workshop on 11 March.
Presentations can be found at : www.osdm.gov.au/osdm/workshop0305.html
until tomorrow!. After that date you need to be a member of OSDM to
access the archive.
The standard is due for release for final comments at the end of March
and will then be reviewed by the MWG for two months. After that there
will be profile implementation issues, Metadata Tools, the ASDD
(Australian Spatial data Directory), refining ISO definitions for
Australian implementations, etc, etc. So there is a way to go yet but
hopefully in a ?couple of years it will be done - for the moment!
Yours sincerely
Maura O'Connor
Map Curator
National Library of Australia
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia
Phone : +61 2 6262 1280
Fax: +61 2 6262 1653
Email : [log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for issues related to map & spatial data librarianship
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of A Paul R Cooper
Sent: Wednesday, 23 March 2005 8:58 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [IFLA-L] Reminder to comment by March 31
Dear All,
I am not a map librarian, so this may be a naive question!
Have the requirements of ISO 19115 (Geographic information - Metadata)
been taken into account in drafting these standards? If they haven't
then I suspect that they will soon be out-dated and unuseable.
Background: The ISO is creating a vast array of standards to cover all
aspects of geospatial information, through Technical Committee TC211.
These standards cover all aspects of geospatial information, and cover
everything from the standards required to create the standards through
to management methodologies. ISO 19115 and its sister standard ISO 19139
(an XML schema for ISO 19115) are the standards for handling metadata
(which would include library cataloguing data). They are being adopted
widely by organizations involved in handling spatial information, both
for discovery (catalogue) functions and for documentation.
Because ISO arises from cooperation between national standards bodies
such as the BSI, it is very likely that ISO standards will be those
preferred for governmental and intergovernmental agencies.
If anyone wants more information, I am a representative to ISO from the
Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research and also sit on the
equivalent BSI committee.
Best wishes
Paul Cooper
>>> [log in to unmask] 23 March 2005 09:12:59 >>>
Dear Lismappers and LIBER-GDC people,
This message may well be of interest to you.
With best wishes,
Nick Millea
----- Original Message -----
From: "John D Byrum" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2005 10:23 PM
Subject: [IFLA-L] Reminder to comment by March 31
> Dear colleagues,
> Just sending a reminder about the March 31 deadline for comments on
> ISBD(CM) draft.
> Regards, John Byrum
>
>>>>
>>>>
> Invitation to:
> World-Wide Review of International Standard Bibliographic Description
> for Cartographic Materials (ISBD(CM))
> 2004 revision
> Comments due by March 31, 2005
>
> In the early 1990s, IFLA's Division of Bibliographic Control set up a
> Study Group on the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records
> (FRBR). Following adoption of the Study Group's recommendations, the
> ISBD Review Group was charged to initiate a full-scale review of the
> ISBDs. The objective of this project was to ensure conformity between
> the provisions of the ISBDs and FRBR's data requirements for the
"basic
> level national bibliographic record" (BLNBR).
>
> In the ISBDs, national bibliographic agencies are called upon to
> prepare the definitive description containing all the mandatory
elements
> set out in the relevant ISBD insofar as the information is applicable
to
> the publication being described. To facilitate implementation of this
> principle, the ISBDs designate as "mandatory" those data elements that
> are always to be included in records prepared by national
bibliographic
> agencies, as "conditional" those that must be included under certain
> circumstances but that need not be included otherwise, and as
"optional"
> those that may be included if desired but that are not required.
> Therefore, the main task in pursuing this revision project has
entailed
> a close examination of the ISBD data elements that are mandatory to
make
> optional or conditional those that are also optional in FRBR. (In no
> case is a data element mandatory in FRBR but optional in the ISBDs.)
>
> The updated version of the ISBD(CM), ready for your review and
> comments, is now available by clicking on the link that appears at:
> http://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/pubs/Invitation4WWreview12-04.htm .
>
> In addition to the changes resulting from the work outlined above,
this
> version of ISBD(CM), introduces some changes in terminology. Among
them
> is the use of the term "resource" rather than "item" or "publication".
> ("Resource" is given a specific definition in 0.2). Other changes in
> wording were made to simplify the text and make it more consistent
with
> other ISBDs. Similarly, in some cases, the order of choice of title
> proper is changed to be based on typography, then on sequence, to
match
> treatment in other ISBDs.
>
> The use of multiple GMDs is under investigation by a Study Group
> constituted by the ISBD Review Group; as the Study Group reaches
> decisions on issues to be resolved, changes may later need to be made
to
> ISBD(CM).
>
> "Scale" (or its equivalent in another language) is used as a constant
> in all cases, and "digital graphic representation" has been added for
> electronic cartographic materials.
>
> The Review Group would also very much appreciate contributions of
> examples to illustrate the particular provisions in ISBD(CM).
Composite
> examples for consideration for inclusion in Appendix C would also be
> most welcome as would be comments on the examples that are provided in
> this version for review. We prefer examples in which fewer
abbreviations
> are present.
>
> The text itself is presented as a draft for world-wide review.
Comments
> on this draft revision of ISBD(CM) are now being sought. Please submit
> your comments to Dorothy McGarry at the address below by March 31,
> 2005.
>
>
> John D. Byrum, Jr.
> Chair, ISBD Review Group
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
>
>
> Reply to:
> Dorothy McGarry
> P. O. Box 931119
> Los Angeles, CA 90093-1119
> USA
> Tel: +1-310-8250794
> Fax: +1-310-2069872
>
________________________________________________________
Nick Millea
Map Librarian, Bodleian Library, Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3BG
tel: 01865 287119
fax: 01865 277139
email: [log in to unmask]
homepage: http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/guides/maps/
________________________________________________________
