ICSM ISO19115-1 Metadata Best Practice Guide

Associated Resource ★★★

Geospatial data and service often are part of a larger collection of resources. Geospatial practitioners need to be provided linkages to these associated resources of which a given resource is a part. There are many types of associated resources, spatial and non-spatial. Associated resources can also provide a useful path for discovery.

   
Element Name associateResource
Parent MD_Metadata.identificationInfo>MD_Identification
Class/Type MD_AssociatedResource
Governance Resource use, Discovery
Purpose Discovery, Identification
Audience machine resource - ⭑ ⭑
  general - ⭑ ⭑ ⭑
  resource manager - ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ ⭑
  specialist - ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ ⭑
Metadata type administrative, descriptive
ICSM Level of Agreement ⭑ ⭑ ⭑

Definition

An entity to indicate an association between resources and records related to the resources when part of a larger collection

ISO Obligation -

Discussion

When important aspects or information about a spatial resource are derived by the association of this resource to others of which it is part, it is useful that these associations be documented in the metadata so as these can be captured and discovered. Doing so provides important avenues for additional data discovery. Some resources are truly of little use unless combined with others of which they are a part.

ICSM Best Practice Recommendations

Therefore - to provide an effective way to document, preserve and provide discovery of associated resources, these relations should be documented in the metadata. At a minimum, this should include a name, description of the relationship and link to the resource or its metadata. In contrast to additionalDocumentation which can be thought of as outputs used to describe and understand a cited resource, an associatedResource is something that is of a piece of, or input to, the cited resource.

## Outstanding Issues

Geonetwork support Support of associated resources for iso19115-3 in GeoNetwork 3.6 seems limited and perhaps broken. This needs investigation.

## Other discussion

DCAT Def - A resource with an unspecified relationship to the catalogued item. Notes - Use only if more specific subproperty is not available. Sub-properties of dct:relation in particular dcat:distribution, dct:hasPart, (and its sub-properties dcat:catalog, dcat:dataset, dcat:service ), dct:isPartOf, dct:conformsTo, dct:isFormatOf, dct:hasFormat, dct:isVersionOf, dct:hasVersion, dct:replaces, dct:isReplacedBy, dct:references, dct:isReferencedBy, dct:requires, dct:isRequiredBy

## Also Consider

Crosswalk considerations

ISO19139

MD_AssociatedResource replaces MD_AggregateInformation to clarify its role as a mechanism for associating resources. Changes include:

Dublin core / CKAN / data.gov.au

TBD {mapping to DC element and discussion???}

DCAT

Maps to dct:relation

RIF-CS

Maps to “Related Information”

Examples

XML

<mdb:MD_Metadata>  
....
 </mdb:identificationInfo>   
  </mri:MD_DataIdentification>
  ....  
   <mri:associatedResource>
    <mri:MD_AssociatedResource>
     <mri:name>
      <cit:CI_Citation>
       <cit:title>
        <gco:CharacterString>Big Project</gco:CharacterString>
       </cit:title>
      </cit:CI_Citation>
     </mri:name>
     <mri:associationType>
      <mri:DS_AssociationTypeCode codeList="https://schemas.isotc211.org
      /19115/resources/Codelist/cat/codelists.xml#DS_AssociationTypeCode"
      codeListValue="largerWorkCitation"/>
     </mri:associationType>
    </mri:MD_AssociatedResource>
   </mri:associatedResource>
  ....
  </mri:MD_DataIdentification>
 </mdb:identificationInfo>
....
</mdb:MD_Metadata>

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UML diagrams

Recommended elements highlighted in yellow

associateResource

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