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Abstract

The usage of clearinghouse techniques are a state of the art way to disseminate the digital geoscientic data as well as the information or metadata about the data. A geoscientific clearinghouse consists of a relational database server, a web server and application software for retrieval, presentation and download of data. The client side only needs an internet browser to get access to the clearinghouse features. Metadata are neccessary for the operation of clearinghouses. Often the relationships between data and belonging metadata are lost or the metadata itself don"t exist. To create form the start a scientific product always as set of a data and a metadata file is an easy way to keep together both digital data and metadata. The product metadata existing as extended DIF documents will be extracted and pumped into a relational database as well as stored as text files together with the data files in a product archive. The extended DIF file contains all attributes are neccessary for an aimed und successful geoscientific product retrieval. For the connection of different clearinghouses Z39.50 interfaces and servers are used.