Profiles

One of the significant enhancements of the FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998) is the ability of the metadata producer to "profile" the base standard by defining a subset of the metadata entities and/or elements that are used by a specific discipline or organization. The official requirements and rules for the development of Profiles are documented in Appendix E of the FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998).

A profile is subset of the metadata entities and elements of the base standard that describes the application of the CSDGM Standard to a specific user community. A Profile permits the modifications to the optionality or repeatability of non-mandatory elements and domains, where permitted, in the Standard. Profiles may also contain extended elements.

Profiles are formalized through the FGDC standards process or may be used informally by a user community. The FGDC is the approval authority for profiles. To become recognized by the FGDC, a metadata profile must go through the FGDC standards review and approval process


There are 5 basic requirements of a profile. A profile must include:

• the basic, minimum set of metadata collected to the specification of this Standard
  
  
• all mandatory elements in all mandatory sections.
  
  
• all mandatory- if-applicable elements in all mandatory sections, if the data set has the characteristic documented in the element
  
  
• all mandatory elements in all mandatory-if-applicable sections if the data set has the characteristic documented in the section
  
  
• all mandatory-if-applicable elements in all mandatory-if-applicable sections, if the data set has the characteristic documented in the section
  
  
  

The guidelines for creating a profile are:

• A profile must not change the name, definition, or data type of a standard element.
  
  
• A profile may impose more stringent conditionality on standard elements than the Standard requires. (Elements that are optional in the Standard may be mandatory in a profile).
  
  
• A profile may contain elements with domains that are more restrictive than the Standard. (Elements whose domains have free text in the Standard may have a closed list of appropriate values in the profile).
  
  
• A profile may restrict the use of domain values allowed by the Standard. For example, if the Standard contains five domain values for a standard element, the profile may specify that its domain consist of three domain values identified in the profile. The profile may require that the user select a value from the three domain values.
  
  
• A profile will not permit anything not allowed by the Standard. (If the Standard element has a domain of three values, without a free text element, the profile will not allow a user to enter anything other than those 3 values).
  
  
• Before creating a profile, the metadata producer will check existing registered profiles.
  
  
• A profile must be made available to anyone receiving metadata that was collected according to that profile.
  
  
• The profile document submitted to the FGDC for formal approval shall contain the same six sections as the introduction section of this Standard.