These Guidelines define a number of metadata elements to be used in the documentation of data resources that have a geospatial reference or references, whether based on coordinates or geographic identifiers. These elements represent a minimum set for the discovery of data resources in the context of a metadata service designed for users searching for geographic information.

The metadata elements defined here may be applied to data resources at a number of levels but are primarily intended for use with collections or series i.e. datasets captured to a common specification or to a common standard. Datasets forming the collections or series may relate to different time periods or geographical extents or both. However, single datasets that do not form part of a collection or series may also be documented with these Guidelines.

These guidelines also define an XML based transfer format and a communications protocol based on Z39.50.

Only datasets that are geospatially referenced to the United Kingdom may be documented using these Guidelines although the principles are applicable world-wide. Although these Guidelines are primarily intended for use with digital data resources they may be applied to other types of data resources such as those that are paper-based.

The guidelines do not constrain the manner in which a user interface may be designed or data stored. For example the guidelines specify that dates should conform to the format CCYYMMDD for transfer purposes, a user interface may wish to enable a user to enter the date in a more readable form such as DD-MMM-CCYY and hold the date in a commercial database format, neither of these options is excluded by the guidelines. The guidelines merely state that when date information is transferred between parties it should be converted to the format CCYYMMDD.

Although these Guidelines contain certain information about implementation, they provide no specific guidance on metadata creation, metadata quality, metadata maintenance or the use of Internet search engines.