ICSM ISO19115-1 Metadata Best Practice Guide

Distribution Info ★★★★★

Commonly the most important purpose of a catalogue is to provide information by which one can access the resources described. In ISO19115-1 the distrubutionInfo package contains and provides this information describing both online and offline access methods, contacts, and instructions.

   
Element Name distributionInfo
Parent MD_Metadata
Class/Type MD_Distribution
Governance Common ICSM, Agency, Domain
Purpose Discovery, Identification, Access
Audience machine resource - ⭑ ⭑ ⭑
  general - ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ ⭑
  resource manager - ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ ⭑
  specialist - ⭑ ⭑ ⭑
Metadata type administrative
ICSM Level of Agreement ⭑ ⭑ ⭑

Definition

information about the distributor of and options for obtaining the resource

ISO Obligation -

Discussion

The distributionInfo package is highly flexible and provides multiple ways to capture information related to the distribution of resources descibed in a metadata record. In this entry we describe what we have determined to be best practice in the ICSM context. For instance, the format of a distribution could be captured using the path: MD_Distribution.distributionFormat or MD_Distribution.transferOptions>MD_DigitalTransferOptions.distributionFormat We have chosen to recommend the later. This is to provide better clarity of the relation between the cited format to the cited access (online or off). This format element describes the format of the data for a particular distribution of the resource. It does not describe the format of the resource native store or of the metadata. There may be multiple formats for a distribution.

ICSM Best Practice Recommendations

Therefore - The distributionInfo package should be populated in all metadata records unless it obviously has no resource to be distributed, e.g. metadata for a series where resources are accessed via the children. This package should contain at least the minimum information necessary to contact the party responsible for this distribution of the resource. We have identified three primary sub-elements to recommend:

Of these, distributor is is the most most highly recommended.

When needed, instructions for online access should be provided.
It is often unclear as to what qualifies as a different distribute and what is simply a different format of the same distribution. A web feed may qualify as a different distribution than a download, but a different mime type of a download may not. Provide as many distribution options as is useful. Capture of rarely used options or those with only minor differences, unless one wants to encourage their use, is at the descretion of an agency. Do not overload a distribution entry with two many options. If a distribution gets too complex because of too many otions available, consider creating multiple distributions. It is recommended that the format details are specific for the distribution. If two different version of the same format are available they be documented as two different formats. When using a common distribution service that provides all data in a set number of formats, consider using MD_Distribution.distributor>MD_Distributor.distributorFormat.

Offline distribution support

Offline access is an important option in many circumstances. For offline access to the resource we recommend the use of MD_Distribution.transferOptions>MD_DigitalTransferOptions.offline to capture information about the media on which the resource is stored.
The MD_Distribution.transferOptions>MD_DigitalTransferOptions.online with CI_OnLineresource.function>CI_OnLineFunctionCode value of offlineAccess is to be reserved for instructions (online) about how to access the resource from the providor offline. Another preferred apporach is to provide such instructions is via MD_Distribution.distributor>MD_Distributor.distributionOrderProcess.

There may also be instances where anonymous free online distribution is not desired for a cited resource. The distribution package may still be of value in providing contact information by which one may discuss obtaining the resource from the provider. In this case we recommend that the description be populated as well as distributor information. in addition population of MD_Distribution.distributor>MD_Distributor.distributionOrderProcess is recommended.

Crosswalk considerations

ISO19139

Dublin core / CKAN / data.gov.au

DCAT

Recommended property to meet data citation requirement

RIF-CS

Also Consider

Examples

XML

<mdb:MD_Metadata>
....
  <mdb:distributionInfo>
    <mrd:MD_Distribution>
       <mrd:description>
          <gco:CharacterString>
          A sample distribution record for a dataset
          </gco:CharacterString>
       </mrd:description>
       <mrd:distributor>
          <mrd:MD_Distributor>
             <mrd:distributorContact>
                <cit:CI_Responsibility>
                   <cit:role>
                      <cit:CI_RoleCode 
                      codeList="https://schemas.isotc211.org/19115/resources
                      /Codelist/cat/codelists.xml#CI_RoleCode"
                      codeListValue="distributor"/>
                   </cit:role>
                   <cit:party>
                      <cit:CI_Organisation>
                         <cit:name>
                            <gco:CharacterString>
                            OpenWork Ltd
                            </gco:CharacterString>
                         </cit:name>
                         <cit:contactInfo>
                            <cit:CI_Contact>
                               <cit:address>
                                  <cit:CI_Address>
                                     <cit:electronicMailAddress>
                                        <gco:CharacterString>
                                        info@openwork.nz
                                        </gco:CharacterString>
                                     </cit:electronicMailAddress>
                                  </cit:CI_Address>
                               </cit:address>
                            </cit:CI_Contact>
                         </cit:contactInfo>
                      </cit:CI_Organisation>
                   </cit:party>
                </cit:CI_Responsibility>
             </mrd:distributorContact>
             <mrd:distributionOrderProcess>
                <mrd:MD_StandardOrderProcess>
                   <mrd:fees>
                      <gco:CharacterString>Free</gco:CharacterString>
                   </mrd:fees>
                   <mrd:orderingInstructions>
                      <gco:CharacterString>
                      Contact us at the distributor email address
                      </gco:CharacterString>
                   </mrd:orderingInstructions>
                </mrd:MD_StandardOrderProcess>
             </mrd:distributionOrderProcess>
          </mrd:MD_Distributor>
       </mrd:distributor>
       <mrd:transferOptions>
          <mrd:MD_DigitalTransferOptions>
             <mrd:onLine>
                <cit:CI_OnlineResource>
                   <cit:linkage>
                      <gco:CharacterString>
                      https://data.openwork.nz/samplePath/toResource
                      </gco:CharacterString>
                   </cit:linkage>
                   <cit:protocol gco:nilReason="missing">
                      <gco:CharacterString/>
                   </cit:protocol>
                   <cit:name gco:nilReason="missing">
                      <gco:CharacterString/>
                   </cit:name>
                   <cit:description gco:nilReason="missing">
                      <gco:CharacterString/>
                   </cit:description>
                   <cit:function>
                      <cit:CI_OnLineFunctionCode 
                      codeList="https://schemas.isotc211.org/19115/resources
                      /Codelist/cat/codelists.xml#CI_OnLineFunctionCode" 
                      codeListValue=""/>
                   </cit:function>
                </cit:CI_OnlineResource>
             </mrd:onLine>
             <mrd:distributionFormat>
                <mrd:MD_Format>
                   <mrd:formatSpecificationCitation>
                      <cit:CI_Citation>
                         <cit:title>
                            <gco:CharacterString>
                            geopackage
                            </gco:CharacterString>
                         </cit:title>
                         <cit:edition>
                            <gco:CharacterString>1.2.0</gco:CharacterString>
                         </cit:edition>
                      </cit:CI_Citation>
                   </mrd:formatSpecificationCitation>
                </mrd:MD_Format>
             </mrd:distributionFormat>
          </mrd:MD_DigitalTransferOptions>
       </mrd:transferOptions>
       <mrd:transferOptions>
          <mrd:MD_DigitalTransferOptions>
             <mrd:onLine>
                <cit:CI_OnlineResource>
                   <cit:linkage>
                      <gco:CharacterString>
                      https://info.openwork.nz/linkTo/offlineAccess/instructions
                      </gco:CharacterString>
                   </cit:linkage>
                   <cit:protocol>
                      <gco:CharacterString>
                      WWW:DOWNLOAD-1.0-http--download
                      </gco:CharacterString>
                   </cit:protocol>
                   <cit:name gco:nilReason="missing">
                      <gco:CharacterString/>
                   </cit:name>
                   <cit:description gco:nilReason="missing">
                      <gco:CharacterString/>
                   </cit:description>
                   <cit:function>
                      <cit:CI_OnLineFunctionCode 
                      codeList="https://schemas.isotc211.org/19115/resources
                      /Codelist/cat/codelists.xml#CI_OnLineFunctionCode" 
                      codeListValue=""/>
                   </cit:function>
                </cit:CI_OnlineResource>
             </mrd:onLine>
             <mrd:offLine>
                <mrd:MD_Medium>
                   <mrd:name>
                      <cit:CI_Citation>
                         <cit:title>
                            <gco:CharacterString>
                            BigProject data
                            </gco:CharacterString>
                         </cit:title>
                      </cit:CI_Citation>
                   </mrd:name>
                </mrd:MD_Medium>
             </mrd:offLine>
          </mrd:MD_DigitalTransferOptions>
       </mrd:transferOptions>
    </mrd:MD_Distribution>
  </mdb:distributionInfo>
....
</mdb:MD_Metadata>

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UML diagrams

Recommended elements highlighted in yellow

Distribution

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