1.5.1 ISO 19115 Metadata Standard

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Contents

Format ISO Standard

An ISO Standard itself is standardised too. This applies to a number of aspects such as:

  • front page,
  • format,
  • UML class diagrams.

Front page

The front page of an ISO standard is shown here. Remarkable:

  • International Standard (IS; see 1.2.2 ISO/TC211)
  • The ISO number: ISO 19115
  • 'Geographic information' is written as the first part of the title; this indicates that it was created by ISO/TC211. 'Metadata' is written as the second part of the title and indicates the content of this standard.
  • A French subtitle: the standard itself is in English.
  • Reference number, indicating the version of the standard: ISO 19115:2003












Format

The content of an ISO standard partly has a permanent format. This permanent part has been worked out below.

  • Foreword

What an ISO is and what it does, and which TC created this standard, is described in the foreword.

  • Introduction

In the introduction, the reason why this standard has been made and what it is used for is explained.

Both the foreword and the introduction contain additional information. The Standardised part starts in the first chapter of the standard. The Standardised part is always written in the chapters. The appendices may contain both Standardised and informative parts. Normative aspects, for example, might be too large to be part of a chapter, and that is why they are moved to the appendices. The informational part of the appendices is meant to offer clarification, with the working out of examples in a specific domain.



  • 1. Scope

A lot of attention is given to the scope of the standard. This has to be drawn up before the work on the standard has started. Sometimes the scope is discussed for two (or more) days.

  • 2. Conformity

The chapter on conformity (with references to normative appendices) describes, according to ISO 19106 (Conformance) how the user of a standard knows this conforms to the standard.

  • 3. Normative references

The chapter on normative references refers to other standards or documents which are used in the normative part of this standard. References to standards or informational documents used for the informational part of the standard are listed in the last appendix, the bibliography.

  • 4. Terms and definitions

In the chapter on terms and definitions, the terms used in the normative part and the appropriate definitions are listed. ISO/TC211 has made many ISO standards that sometimes have various definitions. This is why the Terminology Maintenance Group (TMG) harmonises all the definitions within the TC. The result has been published at: [1].

  • 5. Symbols and abbreviated terms

This chapter contains a list of abbreviations written out in full and an explanation of the UML class diagrams so that the user of the standard can understand the UML notations.

  • 6. ...

From chapter 6 onwards, the format is unspecified.

Core set of metadata

ISO 19115 consists of more than 400 meta data elements. Each standard has a (core set) to indicate the important elements. Everyone who observes the standard must also observe this core set (conformity).The core elements are shown here. The core set consists of:

  • Mandatory (M): mandatory elements
  • Conditional (C): conditional elements. These elements are mandatory if a certain condition has been met.
  • Optional (O): optional elements.


An International Standard is often specified for regional or national use. This is called profiling. A profile is a subset of a standard and/or addition or detailing of it. In Europe for ISO 19115 detail and implementation have been made for INSPIRE. It is a core set that has to be filled out in order to be able to find metadata. In order to meet ISO 19115, the elements M and C are adopted in the INSPIRE core set.


The Dutch profile for metadata meets INSPIRE and in that way it meets the mandatory core set of ISO 19115. Two extra elements have been added to the Dutch core set to make it applicable to the Dutch situation.




UML Class diagrams

UML notation is used in all the standards. It is, therefore, important to be able to read and understand UML (see 4 Information Modelling. The UML class diagrams of ISO/TC 211 are published under `models`.
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