ASDD

Page history last edited by Anonymous 1 yr ago

 

ASDD – Australian Spatial Data Directory

Summary

Type of tool

Directory

Function

Metadata directory

Online / Desktop

Online

Computer infrastructure

Z39.50 connection

Development status

Active. Over 20 participants

Time of use

While data is stored with ALA, at time of user request

Licence

 

ASDD – Australian Spatial Data Directory is a spatial metadata search facility for the disparate Australian spatial data providers.

 

Description

The ASDD is an essential component of the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure (ASDI). The gateway to the ASDD is maintained by Geoscience Australia on behalf of ANZLIC - the Spatial Information Council, as part of its broader Australian Government responsibility for the ASDI.

The individual ASDD nodes are implemented by State/Territory jurisdictions, Australian Government agencies, and commercial organisations (for details see all node descriptions). It is the responsibility of individual nodes to maintain their own metadata and nodes in accordance with the ANZLIC Metadata Guidelines and the ASDD Requirements and Standards. 1

 

The Australian Spatial Data Directory (ASDD) provides these search interfaces to discover geospatial dataset descriptions (metadata) throughout Australia. A dataset description is a concise document which consistently explains a certain set of geospatial (earth-related) data, and provides links to further information and possibly to the actual data.

 

The ASDD is an ANZLIC - the Spatial Information Council Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure (ASDI) initiative.

 

OSDM is sponsoring a pilot project to replace the ASDD gateways with GeoNetwork. More information about this can be found at http://asdd.ga.gov.au/asdd/asdi/. 2

 

About the ASDD3

The Australian Spatial Data Directory (ASDD) is a national initiative supported by all governments under the auspices of ANZLIC - the Spatial Information Council. The ASDD aims to improve access to Australian spatial data for industry, government, education and the general community through effective documentation, advertisement and distribution. The directory comprises government and commercial nodes in each State/Territory and spatial data agencies within the Australian Government.

 

A key objective of the ANZLIC strategic plan is to promote the development of the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure (ASDI) which will improve access to and availability of nationally consistent spatial datasets. The ASDD is an essential component of the ASDI and incorporates information about datasets (metadata) from all jurisdictions.

 

The ASDD was launched in 1998 and has since steadily grown in content to become the key source of spatial information in Australia.

 

The technology being used for the ASDD is the Z39.50 search and retrieval protocol which when combined with the World Wide Web provides a simple method of searching, discovery and retrieval of spatial data. More detail is available in the Technical Documentation which also includes instructions for establishing a node of the ASDD.

 

Geoscience Australia maintains the gateway on behalf of ANZLIC, as part of its broader Australian Government responsibility for the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure.

 

Becoming a node of the ASDD4

To participate in the ASDD, an organisation needs to meet certain criteria. These are summarised in Requirements and Standards.

 

ASDD Nodes5

 

An example of node metadata6


Bureau of Meteorology
Node type
Commonwealth government

 

Node description
Selected Bureau of Meteorology base data sets.

 

Z39.50 connection details
True Z39.50 client software can also be used to search this collection.
See lists at Z39.50 Maintenance Agency

  • Server hostname: extapps.bom.gov.au
  • Server port: 6668
  • Repository name: bom_meta

 

Bounding coordinates
The outer geographic extent of the whole document collection ...

  • North bounding coordinate: -9
  • South bounding coordinate: -44
  • East bounding coordinate: 154
  • West bounding coordinate: 112

 

Top search terms
These terms occur frequently in the metadata collection. They will give you a starting point for conducting searches.
Forecast, Rainfall, District, Boundary, Meteorology, Climate

 

References

 

Contact details

  • Contact organisation: Bureau of Meteorology
  • Postal address: PO box 1289K
  • City: Melbourne
  • State: Victoria
  • Postal code: 3001
  • Electronic mail: mgdu@bom.gov.au
  • Telephone: 0396694474

 

Metadata date
2004-05-11

 

The ASDD checks the status of each of the connected nodes every hour. Number of records available and response time is logged. A summary report is generated monthly and made publicly accessible.

 

Total ASDD records 40,000 (December 2007).

 

Function

  • Metadata
    • Data discovery
  • User interface
    • Institutional use
    • Raw data

 

Why use this tool?

  • Access to Australian spatial metadata

 

Who will use this tool?

  • ALA infrastructure

 

How will the tool be used?

  • Z39.50 search and retrieval protocol
  • Runs as a batch job

 

ASDD Metadata Search

Basic Search 7

  • AND, OR, or PHRASE

 

Advanced Search 8

  • Boolean searches
  • HTML, XML, plain text
  • Node selection
  • Date selection
  • Keyword search
  • Spatial selection – geographic coordinates, define a region using a map, or select from a pre-defined list of geographic extents (eg. State or Territory)

 

Where in the data chain could this tool be used?

  • ALA central

 

When could this tool be used?

  • While data is stored with ALA
  • Perhaps at the time of a user request

 

Availability

 

Comments

 

 

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