What's the purpose of metadata?

GIS practitioners generally blow off metadata. 'Yeah, yeah--metadata is important, I'll get around to writing it as soon as we finish updating the data itself at the end of the next leap-fiscal year.' And their lack of emphasis on it is not misplaced: their job is generally to make sure that their data is as accurate and current as possible. Someone who makes data generally knows where all of his data is.

But how does he find out where everyone else's data is? If Joe is in charge of the county land ownership file, why should he care where Susie's city parks file is? He only has to figure that out once every three years when he is banging out a basemap to justify his job or entertain his kid's Cub Scout pack.

For Joe and Susie, their daily need for metadata is to document data that is already found. So naturally, they don't think of it as serving a discovery function. The metadata sits right next to the data--it doesn't help anyone discover it. This is exactly like descriptive cataloging versus subject cataloging. The descriptive cataloger is just trying to accurately describe the item in hand. She doesn't care about making sure the item is findable. It's not her job.

So who does need a discovery mechanism? Where do description and discover meet? Who is searching for GIS data? Where do they start looking? What methods do they use? Do they act like other users with information needs?

25¢ coffee.

With my chicken-fried steak for breakfast. What is it about the chicken fried steak that attracts me like a spider to the moths near the porch light? Is it the combination of salt and fat that Michael Pollan says we have all become addicted to?

Or is it the pizza-like infinite variation in country gravy? It’s never actually bad, but sometimes it’s spectacularly good. Or at least an interesting local variation. American breakfast is American breakfast: eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, omelets. There’s a wide variety of combinations, but basically they are all variations on a theme. I’m not sure what to do with the fact that most of them are bad for you.

Cody turned out to be a fun town, and the meeting I attended was flawlessly orchestrated. I’m thinking that libraries and conferences only have so many variations also. All the librarians complain of slow-moving administrations, irrational belt-tightening measures, and a misunderstanding of our various specialties. But we also brag of generous donors, engaged readers, and pride in our collections. I struggle to reconcile this contradiction as well. It is so easy to fall into complaint mode, but it is also easy to share accomplishments.

It was a pretty good 25¢ cup of coffee.

WAML dinner talk

Before dinner two nights ago, I had a lovely talk with Dr. Peter Simpson, former Wyoming legislator, Republican nominee for governor, and retired history professor. Oh: and Duck U alum. He shared fond memories of many of our emeriti in the geography department, where he rounded out his education. I shared with him that there are only two real disciplines in the social sciences: history and geography. All others are derivative.

He seemed to really like that.

After dinner, he gave a great talk that revolved around the history 5oo yards around the restaurant where we sat. The three terraces of the Shoshone River have been settled in three distinct phases, and he walked us through the social and economic developments of each. And he charmed the comfortable shoes off the room full of librarians. There are rumors that we'll publish the talk in its entirety. I'm not sure if the whiskey jokes will be included.

Hong Kong and Shenzhen

Here we go! Last photos from the trip.

And now I'm on the road again in Cody, Wyoming. Great little town, great company at WAML.

And this weekend in Seattle.

I need to slow down.

Lagging...

We had dinner tonight with my friend's parents, whom we have been euphamistically referring to as our 'package from Shenzhen.' This was a nice opportunity to apologize for any misunderstandings / deprivations / draggings-to-tourist-destinations that happened over our 3 days together. They swore there were no such things, and that the traveling went off without a hitch. I have to say though, that I was pretty much panicking in SFO trying to explain the monitors to them--they were originally scheduled to come in 2 hours later and the gates tend to change a lot with the mini-planes there.

We also got to fill in some gaps in the narrative--are they retired? How big is their town? How long have the 2 other kids been in Shenzhen? Did you really like the bird park or were you just humoring us? I was really happy for the chance to have this follow-up. And we got some typical Hubei food--rive powder stir fried with cabbage and pork. We were also treated to CY's and XB's first attempt at homemade sausage, which I enjoyed very much.

We are still a bit jet-lagged. Well--our schedules are off anyway. But tomorrow it's back to work and our normal schedule. That will take some getting use to--just like the empty streets of Eugene.

The next set of photos is ready. These are all from Shanghai, where we spent 5 days. As always--click on the thumbnail.

China tour 2009--Shanghai

First photos from China.

Sorry to those who were hoping for frequent updates. Blogger was caught up in the Great Firewall. I did post a few geographer-ish notes over at the more business-like blog.

The thumbnail below will lead you to the first batch of photos--all from Beijing. I'll post the details of the trip in coming days, but I figure that most people just look at the pictures anyway. It was a great trip, and the only possible shortcoming (other than the weather--hot and humid all the way through) was a lack of time to visit with friends at Bei Da. I promise you all that next time will be more leisurely (if not for a full 5 months--but we all know the location of that trip is not up to me).

China tour 2009--Beijing