FEDERAL GEOGRAPHIC DATA COMMITTEE

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, 590 NATIONAL CENTER

RESTON, VIRGINIA 20192 HTTP:// WWW.FGDC.GOV

PHONE: 703-648-5514

FAX: 703-648-5755

EMAIL: GDC@USGS.GOV

The FGDC Biological Metadata Profile

Development of a biological “profile” of the Federal

Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata

standard is one of the primary areas of emphasis of

the FGDC’s Biological Data Working Group.

Metadata are data which serve to describe data sets,

databases, or information products (such as maps or

technical reports) by documenting such things as

subject matter; how, when, where, and by whom the

data were collected; accuracy of the data; and

availability and distribution information. Although

the FGDC “Content Standard for Digital Geospatial

Metadata” (CSDGM) provides for excellent

documentation of data from the geospatial

perspective, it can be limited, and in some ways,

inadequate, for describing data sets or information

products from the biological perspective. For

example, one consistent need in describing different

biological data sets so that they can be compared,

shared, and integrated is to document the biosystematics aspects of the data (that is, the taxonomy

and nomenclature for species and higher taxonomic

groups). Obviously, the FGDC geospatial metadata

standard was not intended to focus on this type of

thematic requirement specific to the biological

science/biological resources community.

In 1998, the FGDC approved Version 2 of the

CSDGM

<http://www.fgdc.gov/metadata/contstan.html>

One of the key changes made in Version 2 of this

standard was to provide guidelines for the

development of different thematic or communityspecific “views” of the base standard. These views

are known as “profiles” and they allow a community

of data and information providers and users, such as

the biological sciences community, to follow the

FGDC’s metadata standard, while also extending or

enhancing this standard so it is more useful and

effective for describing their community’s data (e.g.,

biological data).

The Biological Data Profile <http://www.fgdc.gov/

standards/status/sub5_2.html> includes all of the

elements of the FGDC geospatial metadata standard,

while adding elements that help make this generic

standard more useful for describing biological data

sets. Because the Biological Data Profile includes

all the elements of the “base” FGDC geospatial

metadata standard, software tools and protocols used

for collecting, indexing, or exchanging FGDC

metadata are compatible with metadata produced

according to the profile.

In accord with FGDC operating procedures, the

Biological Data Working Group sought input from a

broad array of interested participants in developing

and refining the Biological Data Profile. The draft

profile was initially reviewed by Federal and nonFederal members of the Working Group and the

FGDC Standards Working Group, before a 90-day

public review and comment period. The comments

which resulted from this review were then used to

make final revisions to the profile before it was

submitted for endorsement by the full FGDC.

In addition, the non-Federal biological sciences

community has been extensively involved in the

development and refinement of the profile. This

input has been coordinated mainly through two

national-level panels of biologists convened by the

American Institute of Biological Sciences to provide

AUGUST 1999
For More Information

Visit the FGDC Biological Data Working Group web

site at:

 http://biology.usgs.gov/fgdc.bio/index.html

Or learn more about the National Biological Information Infrastructure program at:

http://www.nbii.gov

Or contact: Anne Frondorf

Executive Secretary, FGDC

Biological Data Working Group

U.S. Geological Survey

12201 Sunrise Valley Dr., MS 300

Reston, VA 20192

(703) 648-4205

Fax: 648-4224

anne_frondorf@usgs.gov

peer reviews of the profile during key stages of its

development.

Development of the Biological Data Profile is an

important component of the National Biological

Information Infrastructure (NBII) program. The

NBII <http://www.nbii.gov> is a collaborative

effort to create a distributed electronic “federation”

of biological data and information products

from many different sources around the U.S. and the

world. Use of a consistent metadata format allows

NBII users to quickly and easily compare and

contrast among all of these different distributed data

and information sources to locate and choose those

which best meet their needs.

Metadata created according to the Biological Data

Profile can be added to the NBII Metadata

Clearinghouse <http://www.nbii.gov/

clearinghouse.html>. This clearinghouse serves as

an online, searchable “card catalog” containing

metadata descriptions of hundreds of different

biological data sets and information products from

many different agencies and organizations. The

NBII Metadata Clearinghouse is also linked to the

FGDC’s National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI)

Clearinghouse, which provides online access to

metadata descriptions of thousands of different

geospatially-oriented data sets.