The North Carolina Geospatial Data Archiving Project: Challenges and Initial Outcomes

The North Carolina Geospatial Data Archiving Project (NCGDAP) is a partnership of the North Carolina (NC) State University Libraries and the NC Center for Geographic Information & Analysis focused on preservation of state and local geospatial data. This project, executed under an agreement with the Library of Congress as part of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP), is helping to inform development of a national digital preservation infrastructure through a learning-by-doing approach focused on identifying, acquiring, and preserving content within the context of the NC OneMap initiative and its framework of partnerships with state, local, and federal agencies. Although the collection-building aspect of this project is focused solely on the state of North Carolina, the project has served as a demonstration that informs data archiving and time series development more generally. The article discusses how the project has responded to key challenges, including identifying data resources for the archive, data acquisition, determining frequency of data capture, engaging the data producer community and industry, processing and creation of metadata, and repository development. The article also highlights newer initiatives that have emerged as outcomes of the project.