During the first CORC Users Group meeting at OCLC in April, we met colleagues who share our interest in importing Federal Geographic Data Standard (FGDC) metadata into CORC. We have written a paper that is the first draft of a proposed mapping of FGDC into Dublin Core (DC) and USMARC. It is available through our Web site at:
http://eeirc.nwrc.gov/pubs/crosswalk/fgdc-marc-dc.htm
Our focus is on conversion issues as they relate to the OCLC Cooperative Online Resource Cataloging project. The paper presents an analysis of 466 FGDC metadata records housed in the NBII node of the FGDC Clearinghouse, with special emphasis on the length of fields and the total length of records in this set. The primary contribution presented in the paper is a 34 element crosswalk, a proposal which takes into consideration the constraints of the MARC standard and the realities of user behavior.
The paper is also a request for comment. We are actively seeking comment and debate among and with our colleagues at OCLC and in the CORC Users Group. We are particularly interested in comments on what other FGDC elements ought to be mapped and how to translate them into DC.