from the Federal Geographic Data Committee in 1994. 
The grant provided partial funding for the development of 
the Clearinghouse and initiated the migration of the North 
Carolina Corporate Geographic Database metadata from 
an existing "data summary" report format to a format 
compliant with the Content Standards for Digital 
Geospatial Metadata. The grant was later modified to 
include the development and testing of the Isite suite of 
products (web, index, search, and retrieval software). 
The application is now a registered Isite indexed 
Clearinghouse, part of the National Spatial Data 
Infrastructure. 
In a strategic effort to extend the application to local 
government, the FGDC, GICC, CGIA, and Wake County, 
NC and it's entities (cities and town) is developing the first 
local serving node of the Clearingshouse in the state. 
The County hopes to provide strategic data (parcels, land 
use, topography) with compliant metadata for direct 
Internet access through the Clearinghouse. 
ACCESS AND POLICY 
North Carolina Public Records Law 
North Carolina is noted to have one of the most liberal 
state policies for open records. The State's public 
records law, in place since 1935, has been amended 
several times this century. Several items of the law (and 
subsequent amendments) pertain to the dissemination of 
computer data, including geospatial data. These are 
worthy to note and are described in the following. 
It is stated in the area of the law pertaining to electronic 
data processing records, that no public agency shall 
purchase, lease, create, or otherwise acquire any 
electronic data processing system for storage, 
manipulation, or retrieval, of public records unless it first 
determines that the system will not impair or impede the 
agency's ability to permit the public inspection and 
examination, and to provide electronic copies of such 
records (Institute, 1995). 
In another area of the law, it is stated that local 
government must make available geographic information 
systems records at a reasonable cost, but only if the 
recipient agrees in writing not to resell or otherwise use 
the information for trade or commercial purposes 
(publication or broadcast by the news media is stated as 
not being for trade or commercial purposes, as is use of 
the information, without resale, by a licensed professional 
in the course of his or her work) If someone wishes to 
resell the information or otherwise use it for trade or 
commercial purposes, the agency may charge whatever 
fee it wishes (Institute, 1995). 
The Public Records law has recently been amended to 
require state, county and local governments to index their 
digital databases with specific elements. These required 
elements can be mapped to elements of the geospatial 
metadata standard. A task group is established to 
educate practitioners in the "Content Standards for Digital 
Geospatial Metadata" and the required indexing 
elements. This group, part of the Wake County project 
described in the previous section of this manuscript, will 
develop guidelines that agencies can follow to ensure 
that metadata developed to the content standard also 
meet the indexing requirements of the Public Records 
law. The resultant guidelines will be presented for 
approval to the GICC and to the Division of Archives and 
History, the agency in the Department of Cultural 
Resources with statutory responsibility for database 
indexing. An approved guideline will result in strong 
support for local level implementation of the metadata 
standard. CGIA will create an on-line program guide 
based on the successful methodologies to assist these 
metadata efforts. 
Access Policy Statement 
Stimulated by the 1995 amendment of the Public Records 
Law, in November of 1995 the GICC adopted a set of 
policy statements for access of data held in the 
Corporate Geographic Database. The following items are 
contained in the policy statement: 
* |n order to support fundamental data management 
and systems delivery functions for "on-line" access 
to the Corporate Geographic Database (e.g. 
computer storage devices; systems maintenance; 
data archives; documentation; clearinghouse; and 
cataloging), a funding mechanism through state 
appropriations will be established and maintained. A 
user fee may be charged for "on-line" access to 
supplement the funding mechanism. 
* Information (metadata) about Corporate Geographic 
Data will be published “on-line” in the North Carolina 
Geographic Data Clearinghouse. 
* Corporate Geographic Data will be provided “on-line” 
using at least one non-propriety data exchange 
format, such as the Spatial Data Transfer Standard, 
and an operational “ready-to-use” data format; 
e Broad Band telecommunications technology, such 
as the North Carolina Information Highway, will be the 
primary conduit for access to the Corporate 
Geographic Database. Other technology, such as 
CD-ROM, will be pursued to accommodate “off-line 
access; 
* In order to achieve the most effective and universal 
access to the geographic data and services, 
cooperative agreements will be established among 
geographic information users, service providers, and 
data producers through the GIS Partnership 
Program; 
e The Center for Geographic Information and Analysis 
is the primary state government distributor for 
Corporate Geographic Data, in “off-line” or in “non- 
standard formats." A reasonable fee will be charged 
for off-line and nonstandard format data orders; 
* Access rights to the Corporate Geographic Database 
will comply with the North Carolina Public Records 
Law (North Carolina General Statute 132, Effective 
October 1, 1995) and subsequent amendments, with 
the exception of specific data that are protected by 
statute such as information about the location of 
endangered species under the Natural Heritage 
Program (North Carolina General Statute 113A- 
164.4(3). 
140 Intemational Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXII, Part 7, Budapest, 1998 
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