Frequently Asked Questions
What are geo-spatial data?
What is a portal?
What makes the Go-Geo! portal different?
What will it do?
How can you use the portal?
How can you find information on related
resources?
What are the main aims and objectives?
What are geo-spatial data?
Geo-spatial data is a term used to cover any
data with geographic references, for example, Ordnance Survey
national grid references, postal addresses, place names or the
names of administrative areas.
What is a portal?
This portal is an online resource discovery tool
that allows for the identification and retrieval of metadata
records. These metadata records describe the content, quality,
condition and other characteristics of geo-spatial
datasets.
What makes the Go-Geo! portal different?
Go-Geo! is a UK portal which supports
geo-spatial searching as well as the more traditional topic or
keyword forms of searching. The service will also support both
controlled vocabulary searching and free text searching.
A gazetteer is required to support the portal,
as most searches will involve spatial searching and users will
need a rich resource of place names. The Go-Geo! service will
use the gazetteer that is being developed by its sister
project, geoXwalk.
What will it do?
The Go-Geo! portal will allow you to access
geo-spatial metadata records by cross-searching a number of
databases. As well as searching for datasets held within the
UK higher and further education community, you will be able to
search the NGDF GI Gateway and its directory services. This
will give you access to other GI communities in the UK (during
this demonstrator phase the number of
metadata records
will be limited, but should the portal
become a national
service more metadata records will be added).
Other
features offered by the portal add value to the data
identified and retrieved. A key feature will be the ability to
find other related resources such as books, photographs,
learning resources and articles. These will be found by
searching the JISC Information Environment and/or other online
information services. The novel aspect is the ability to
search for these resources and constrain the results to the
geographic area you are interested in. Back to Top
How can you use the portal?
You will be able to search by:
controlled keywords or free text;
subject/topics;
geographic locations using an interactive map;
dates;
Results of searches can be printed or
emailed to you.
How can you find information on related
resources?
Information about resources associated
with the service can be found on the left-hand side
of the Go-Geo! homepage. For example, software, training
courses, organisations and discussion groups.
What are the main aims and objectives?
to develop a geo-spatial portal suitable for
roll out as a full service in the JISC Information
Environment;
to promote the possibilities of such a
service;
to identify metadata providers and also
services for inclusion in any cross-searching;
to produce a report identifying the relevant stakeholders
and explaining how the needs of the user groups
will be met.
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