EDINA newsline
April 2007: Volume 12 Issue 1

Interim outcomes from geo-data repository project

GRADE (see Newsline 11.1) is an EDINA project that promotes the reuse and sharing of geospatial information data, and has investigated cultural issues of data-sharing alongside issues of digital rights and copyright law. Now nearing completion, the project has brought together people and practices from across various domains (research, information services, management and administration, etc.) to ensure coordination in the technical and social development of digital repositories.

The main findings of the project to date are as follows:

  1. The law on copyright and licensing for geospatial data in the UK is not as well understood nor as clear-cut as it might be. The AHRC Research Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law have issued a report challenging current legal limitations on the (re)use of digital geospatial data for research and teaching.
  2. There is a perceived need among potential users for a national geospatial data repository. A demonstrator repository has been set up to elicit feedback from the community as to user requirements for a repository capable of managing licensed geospatial assets. The demonstrator has proved popular, with 145 deposited datasets, over 100 registered users and 60 requests for access from those unable to register.
  3. There is a significant degree of informal data sharing occurring, but it is predominantly via conventional methods e.g. email, CD/DVD, FTP. The main barriers to data sharing within the community are the complex licensing and digital rights issues, lack of quality metadata, and concerns over the protection of depositors’ intellectual property. Factors that would encourage geospatial data sharing and reuse are less restrictive licensing, and the establishment of a national geospatial repository service.
  4. There are currently no UK geospatial subject-specific/community repositories in operation, and that although there are growing numbers of IRs, none of them currently manage any geospatial content. A survey would seem to suggest that there is room and a need for both types of repository (i.e. a geospatial data repository and IR).

The GRADE project ends in April 2007. Remaining project deliverables and a final project report will be available on the GRADE project web site.