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Charles Kacmar[1], Susan Hruska[1], Chris Lacher[1], Dean Jue[2], Christie Koontz[2], Myke Gluck[3], and Stuart Weibel[4]
[1]Department of Computer Science, Florida State University, 203 Love, Mail Stop 4019, Tallahassee, Florida 32306-4019, {kacmar, hruska, lacher}@cs.fsu.edu
[2]Florida Resources and Environmental Analysis Center, Mail Stop 4015, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306-4015, {djue, ckoontz}@opus.freac.fsu.edu
[3]School of Library and Information Studies, Mail Stop 2048, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306-2048, mgluck@lis.fsu.edu
[4]Office of Research, Online Computer Library Center, Inc. Dublin, Ohio 43017-0702, weibel@oclc.org
The dependency on and importance of spatial data is well documented but the reality is that a majority of spatial data is inaccessible, even to the most experienced user. The reasons for this situation include the lack of a general and national locator service; facilities to retrieve, convert, relate, and access spatial data; and a diversity of standards for cataloging and representing spatial files. A national spatial digital library would greatly improve this situation. This paper presents a model for a distributed, hierarchical architecture to support a spatial digital library. The goals of this work are to clarify and resolve the problems of access by creating a national spatial metadata locator service that supports the collection and distribution of metadata to geographically distributed nodes. A unique aspect of this approach concerns the distribution network, which is built upon traditional institutions, particularly libraries, at the state and local levels.
Keywords: Spatial, metadata, locator service, libraries, distribution.
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