Spatial Information Custodianship Guidelines (NEW)

What is Custodianship?

Custodianship of spatial information is the act of ensuring appropriate care in the collection, storage and maintenance of the information.

Custodianship is not synonymous with ownership. The differences between custodianship and ownership are significant and will be different within each sector - government, industry and academia.

Background

The principles of custodianship are at the heart of spatial information management because they provide accountability for spatial datasets, and identify authoritative sources that give users a measure of consistency and certainty in the data they are using.

Custodial principles cover all aspects of managing spatial information including data quality, metadata, pricing, licensing, and access. In recent years these principles have been applied, either implicity or explicitly, and to varying degress, in many different organisations.

A priority of VSIS and of these updated guidelines is to:

• establish a more explicit framework and program for the implementation of custodianship for spatial information in Victoria,
• help extend the custodial principles to the management of a broader range of spatial datasets, not only in the government sector but also in the pricate sector and academia.

VSIS 2004-2007 Custodianship Guidelines June 2006 (PDF - 319 Kb)