--- Begin Forwarded Message ---
Date: Mon, 04 Jun 2001 14:18:04 -0400
From: Steve Morris <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: using the FGDC crosswalk to MARC <fwd>
Sender: Steve Morris <[log in to unmask]>



Hello,

A bit over a year ago, as a pilot project, we crosswalked about 120 FGDC
metadata records to MARC using the FGDC to MARC online converter at the Energy
and Environmental Information Resources Center
(http://cuadra.nwrc.gov/converter/).  We did not catalog CD-ROMs however, just
individual, downloaded data sets.  And I can't speak much to the field mappings,
we used the crosswalking provided by the converter, then our catalogers did some
added value work to the resulting MARC records.  In order to do the crosswalking
we had to make SGML and HTML versions of the metadata records available on a
local Web server, then issue an instruction to the EEIRC site after which we
were able to download MARC .dat files.

One of the things that we did in the way of added-value to the resulting MARC
records was identifying additional corporate authors in the metadata record for
inclusion in the MARC record.  We also added 856 links to the following:

- 1) our local Web documentation for the collection of which that data layer was
a part (provides collection-level context information)
- 2) our local data set-specific Web documention page (including things like
local & Web acces, thesaurus term links,  corporate author links, subsetted
metadata--all in pages that are script-generated from a metadata database)
- 3) full metadata record (external only--internal and external linked from our
Web documentation (long story))
- 4) online interactive mapping resource including that data layer (to
facilitate access by non-GIS, casual users from standard library PC's; or
preliminary, exploratory access for experienced users)

If you are curious how this turns out try our catalog at:
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/ and search for 'Public Land Survey System' -- or for a
dataset from a different collection try 'anadromous fish spawning areas'.

The pilot project covered two major collections, one state level (our state GIS
agency corporate database) and one national level (USGS National Atlas).  The
idea was get key collections of state and national level data, as well as a wide
spread of subject terms, into the catalog both as a test of the crosswalking
method and as a promotional tool for GIS resources.  With regard to the latter
aim, most of our GIS users are accidental users: zoologists, foresters,
entomologists, marketing people, etc. who don't start out planning to do GIS but
stumble upon it as a useful set of tools and resources in the course of doing
something discipline-specific.  Getting GIS data into the catalog at the layer
level rather than collection level increases the number of specific subject or
keyword terms applied to GIS resources and improves the chances for
serendipitous discovery in focused subject searches.  All of our reference
librarians get brief GIS training and know how to point the curious patrons who
stumble upon these catalog records towards, specialized assistance, training
oppourtunities, etc. provided by the Libraries.

The catalog is not the means by which people that _intend_ to find GIS data look
for it, we've got other tools either in place or in the works for those users
(another long story).

Best regards,

Steve Morris

Johnnie Sutherland wrote:

> --- Begin Forwarded Message ---
> Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 09:22:55 -0500
> From: "Booth, Arlyn" <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: using the FGDC crosswalk to MARC
> Sender: "Booth, Arlyn" <[log in to unmask]>
>
> Is anyone using the FGDC (Federal Geographic Data Committee's) crosswalk to
> MARC and  inputting fields 342, 343, 352, 514, 516, 551, 583, and 786 for
> cataloging cartographic cd's in a MARC record on OCLC?   If so, what are you
> doing for cd's with multiple metadata sets? If I understand this correctly,
> we could come up with 8  786 fields, for instance, and a HUGE MARC record!
> Any advice would be welcome.
> Thanks, Arlyn
>
> Arlyn Booth
> Map Coordinator
> Illinois State Library
> 300 S. 2nd, Rm. 305
> Springfield, IL  62701-1796
> (217) 558-4140
> FAX (217) 557-6737
> [log in to unmask]
>
> Jesse White, Secretary of State & State Librarian
>
> --- End Forwarded Message ---

--
Steve Morris
Head of Data Services
North Carolina State University Libraries
Phone: (919) 513-2614 Fax: (919) 515-8264
[log in to unmask]
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/gis/

--- End Forwarded Message ---