Quick-Start Guide
Welcome to the geodata.gov Quick-Start Guide. geodata.gov provides access to
maps, search options, articles, and other useful tools. Click the quick links
below to learn about the geodata.gov Web site.
- Create
a New Account and Log in
- Search for Data
- Communities
- Maps
- Marketplace
- Help Center
- View
a Community
- Publishing
- Frequently
Asked Questions
Create a New Account
and Log in
Before
you create an account, please see the geodata.gov Privacy
and Policies
statements.
To create an account:
- Click the 'Sign Up' button located at the top, right of the screen
(see Figure 1).
- The Create New User form opens (see Figure 2 below).
- Enter the following information in the fields provided:
- User ID - your user ID can be any combination of letters and numbers, such
as jsmith11.
- Password - enter a minimum of five (5) characters. Your password can be
any combination of letters and numbers.
- Confirm your password by re-typing it in the 'Confirm Password' text box.
- Your first and last name
- Your e-mail address
Fields
with asterisks * are required fields, you must complete them to create a geodata.gov
account.
Choose
a User ID that you can easily remember. For security reasons, it is a good
idea to use both letters and numbers when creating your User ID and Password.
Be sure to store your User ID and Password in a secure location.
- Click Continue.
Figure 1: Sign up button
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Figure 2: Sign up page
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- Review your personal information and click Continue to create
your new account.
If
your information is not correct, click Cancel to return to the
form and make the appropriate changes.
- The application alerts you that your enrollment was successful
and you are now a member of geodat.gov portal.
Figure 3: Enrollment Successful screen
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If you enter a User ID that has already been registered, the system alerts
you that the User ID already exists. If this happens, enter a different User
ID and try again. You may re-enter a new User ID as many times as necessary.
- Click Continue again and you are returned to the geodata.gov Home
page.
- Click the Log in button and log in to the portal with your newly created
User ID and Password (see Figure 4). Refer to the Log
in help for more information.
Figure 4: Log In button
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Search for Data
Search enables you to find and access a wide variety
of geographic information within geodata.gov.You can perform a Search from the
geodata.gov Home page or by clicking the Search tab.
To Search geodata.gov:
- Define 'What'
you would like to search for and 'Where' in the U.S. you
would like to search.
- Once you have defined
your search parameters, click the Search button and the page refreshes to
display the metadata matching your criteria. See the Search
Results page for more information.
The
‘What’ and 'Where' parameters are optional, but at least one
is needed for your search. Completing both fields helps to narrow your search.
Figure 5: Search geodata.gov
To perform an Advanced Search:
- From the Home page of geodata.gov, click the plus sign next to ‘Show
Advanced Search Options’as shown in Figure 5 above.
- Complete the advanced search options to build your search criteria and find
matching metadata records.
Figure 6: Advanced Search Options
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See
the Search Help for more information.
Communities
Communities on geodata.gov provide a way for users of the portal to share information
with each other about specific topics, such as fire, cadastral, local government,
etc.
The list of communities on the Home page of the portal gives you quick access
(2-clicks to content) to a specific community (see Figure 7).. The geodata.gov
Communities are grouped according to:
- Special Interest - The Special Interest pages are intended
for focus groups that want to share geospatial resources.
- Data Categories - The Data Category pages provide you quick
access to the geodata.gov framework datasets, Web services, and other relevant
Federal, state, or local data.
- Geography - Geography refers to groups working a well defined
area or jurisdictional boundary, such as a County.
Click the name of the community of your choice to browse key resources for
that particular community rather than search for them.
Each Community is developed by a team of users with a common interest. The
community pages may be as simple as a list of selected resources or they may
be developed into living communities for collaboration, sharing, exchange, and
networking. The Community pages can be expanded and customized by the community
group to include one or more of the following activities:
- Community Forum for networking and discussions
- Community Calendar to advertise events of interest to members
- Document Manager for sharing and reviewing documents or references
- Content Selection for the Data Categories which are used to provide “two-clicks”
to content
Figure 7: Communities
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To join a community and see the customized community features described above,
you must be registered with geodata.gov.
Non-community members will only see the selected content under the
data categories.
Maps
The Maps section of geodata.gov contains popular maps that may
be of interest to you. Click on the featured map on the Home page or click the
Maps tab and select a popular map to launch in the Map Viewer to conduct searches
and overlay other map services to meet your needs.
The Map Viewer is a Web-based geographic information system (GIS)
application that allows you to view and interact with geographic data. The geodata.gov
Map Viewer allows you to:
- Add map services from the geodata.gov Map Viewer and other map servers.
- Display one or multiple map services in a single map view.
- Set transparency of map services for overlaying multiple images.
- Turn on/off map layers within a map service.
- Find places anywhere in the United States to view on the map.
- Find street addresses anywhere in the United States to view on the map.
- Identify attribute information about features in a map service.
The geodata.gov Marketplace
The Marketplace provides interactive tools for sharing planned
data collection activities and for finding partners for cost sharing.
The marketplace tools provide:
- A quick database search for all Planned Data Activities or data sharing
initiatives in a given area. The matching results will be displayed in the
Search Results page
for you to review and access.
- The ability to publish planned data acquisitions and data requests so
that others who are looking for partners can find you.
- Show the planned acquisitions and data requests on a map in your area
of interest. You can see where they overlap and where partnerships can be
formed. Contact information is provided.
Help Center
The Help Center contains helpful information
about the geodata.gov portal, including information regarding data standards,
tools, and resources of interest to the U.S. geo-community. Click the Help Center
tab to access this information.
To publish your metadata on geodata.gov, you must first register
as a Publisher.
There are three ways to publish your metadata records on geodata.gov.
If you have an existing metadata repository, you can register your repository
and we will harvest a copy of your metadata records for you. Click the "GOS/NSDI
Metadata Publishing Guidance" link if you are interested in learning how
to publish data collection activities.
This document
is in Portable Document Format (PDF) and requires Adobe Acrobat Reader. Adobe
Acrobat Reader is a free download.
If you don't have a repository, you can publish directly to geodata.gov by
using our online metadata creation form or XML upload.
Use the 'Login' link on the home page to access your Publisher account to conduct
the following activities:
- Publish new metadata records.
- Update, delete, or download your existing metadata records published by using the online form or XML upload.
- Update publisher information.
- Register your metadata repositories to be harvested.
- Update or delete your registered metadata repository information.
- Review the harvest history for each of your registered repositories.
- Review your harvest metadata records.
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