the standard establishes the names of data element and compound element ( groups of data element) to be used for these purposes, the definitions of these compound element and data element, and information about the values that are to be provided for the data element
the major uses of metadata are :
- to maintain an organization's internal investment in geospatial data,
- to provide information about an organization's data holdings to data catalogues, clearinghouses, and brokerages, and
- to provide information needed to process and interpret data to be received through a transfer from an external source.
the information included in the standard was selected based on four roles that metadata play :
- availability -- data needed to datermine the sets of data that exist for a geographic location.
- fitness for use -- data needed to datermine if a set of data meets a specific need.
- access -- data needed to acquire an identified set of data.
- transfer -- data needed to process and use a set of data.
these roles form a continuum in which a user cascades through a pyramid of choices to determine what data are available, to evaluate the fitness of the data for use, to access the data, and to transfer and process the data. the exact order in which data element are evaluated, and the relative importance of data element, will not be the same for all users.