GIS Lunch & Learn About Metadata

Earlier this month, the GIS Program organized an informal GIS Lunch & Learn for fRI staff.  The topic was “Using the EPA Metadata Editor (EME)”, a tool made freely available by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. EME is a simple editor that allows users to create and edit practical documentation (metadata) on geospatial data that they create or manage.

fRI manages over 6.5 terabytes (6,500,000,000 bytes!) of spatial data.  Examples of these include roads (lines), data collection sites (points), grizzly bear home ranges (polygons) and imagery.  Each of these spatial datasets contains a wealth of associated information called attributes such as date, type, size, age, etc.  

The EME tool allows us to manage this wealth of information so that we know who created it, why, and what it should be used for.  It also contains information on who is allowed to use it and for what purposes – most of the data used by fRI staff is shared by fRI partners under data sharing agreements.

Staff are now better equipped to document their geospatial data, thus doing their part in growing research into practice!