The Chicago Region Clearinghouse Cooperative
This Clearinghouse promotes the centralized and
orderly cataloguing of data in the larger Chicago metropolitan region and is part of the
National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) system of Clearinghouse Nodes. Any agency or
group wishing to publish documentation regarding their geospatial data may do so on this
site. The documentation style conforms to the Federal Content Standard for Digital
Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM).
This highly searchable system enables
the user to search:
- by using geospatial coordinates or extents;
- by using date fields;
- by using particular key words and text strings;
and
- by selecting many Clearinghouses simultaneously.
To search for geospatial data using the
Clearinghouse system click here, then
click on the "Search Clearinghouse" button, select a gateway site, fill out a
search request form, submit the request, and review the records returned from your query.
For more information about local Clearinghouse
activities, metadata training, or to find out how you can participate, contact:
Mike Hoather, GIS Analyst
Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission
(312) 454-0400
mhoather@nipc.org
The Chicago Region GIS and Data Catalog
A companion effort in the Chicago region is The Chicago Region GIS and Data Catalog. This
Web-based tool is user-intuitive and promotes the browsing of related data sets
by selecting a general key word. Documentation conforms to the CSDGM.
Additional features of this browsable
catalog include:
- inclusion of non-digital and non-geospatial data;
- inclusion of urls to other related web catalogs;
and
- brief descriptions of the agencies who have
submitted metadata.
For more information about how you can
participate in the catalog, contact:
Mike Hoather, GIS Analyst
Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission
(312) 454-0400
mhoather@nipc.org
Historic Perspective
As we continue to utilize geographic information
systems (GIS), our need for spatial data increases. Over the decades, several efforts have
been made in the Chicago Region to catalog data. Most of these efforts have been
paper-based. While they may have served their needs initially, these catalogs often became
out-of-date quickly.
At the beginning of this decade, Federal agencies
began examining their spatial data collection tasks and their spatial data needs. It
became apparent that there were overlapping needs and collection activities between
agencies. Early in the process, it was concluded that a consistent method of documenting
data sets would move the process along in understanding what each agency held in their
data collections. A standard style for spatial data documentation was developed and
released in its initial version in June 1994 as "The Content Standards for Digital
Geospatial Metadata" (CSDGM). Many of us use the word "metadata" to refer
to this particular style of documentation.
Since 1994, many others outside the Federal
government have adopted the CSDGM as the way to document spatial data. Many of us take our
lead from the Federal Geographic Data Committee, whose tasks are:
- to coordinate the creation of the metadata
standard;
- to serve metadata over the World Wide Web in
clearinghouses; and
- to suggest basic themes of data that constitute a
"framework" of national geospatial data layers that ought to be accessible to
all of us for our daily GIS activities.
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