Abstract
Are Geodatabases a Suitable Long-Term Archival Format?
Track: Database Design, Automation, and Management
Author(s): Jefferson Essic
In partnership with the Library of Congress, the North Carolina Geospatial Data Archiving Project is exploring the many challenges of archiving geospatial data. One of the project’s recurring questions is the preservability of Esri’s geodatabase format. Since geodatabases function as containers for spatial and tabular data relationships, behavior rules, representation properties, and data in multiple formats, they present unique curation issues and questions. Historic snapshots of data can be managed within geodatabases, yet there is a perceived archival need to also capture geodatabase components as static, independently managed records.
This presentation will provide a summary of research into differences between personal and file geodatabases with respect to archiving. Also presented will be experiences with roundtripping geodatabases to shapefiles, XML, GML, and raster formats, and an examination of whether or not vital relationships and behaviors are lost.
Jefferson Essic
NC State University
NCSU Box 7111
DH Hill Library; RIS
Raleigh , North Carolina 27695
United States
Phone: 919-515-5698
E-mail: jeff_essic@ncsu.edu