MACURISA2018

NJGIN 3.0 - Metadata Requirements & Recommendations / Good news! Handling documentation for shared data will be much easier in the NJGIN 3.0 environment than it has been in earlier NJGIN releases.
The need to document shared data has not changed, and structured metadata is still the best way to do that. Structured metadata can both document data for internal and shared use, and also serve as an efficient cataloging tool.
Because there are big changes both in hosting environments for sharing data and metadata, and in metadata authoring tools, there is a learning curve involved. For ArcGIS Online Items, full metadata is accepted only in ArcGIS format. NJGIN 3.0 initially is using ArcGIS Online metadata style FGDC-CSDGM (Federal Geographic Data Committee Content Standard for Geospatial Metadata - the old one.)
ArcCatalog 10.3.1 and later can be used to transition from existing FGDC-CSDGM metadata and to update the resulting ArcGIS format files, or to write informative metadata from scratch; both products will function properly on ArcGIS Online sites configured to use FGDC-CSDGM style metadata. Uploaded metadata can be used to fully populate the ArcGIS Online Item Information.
In order to do the work described above, a user has to configure the ArcCatalog metadata editor properly. It also helps to understand that the editor interface and the ArcGIS metadata file are organized around the ISO geospatial metadata standards; as a result, authors familiar with the FGDC-CSDGM often need some assistance in learning new “locations” for some pieces of information.
The NJ Office of GIS publishes help documents to provide guidance on what information is required for cataloging data to be shared on NJGIN 3.0, and what additional information is required for full documentation of state resource GIS data. 
Authors of New Jersey data who do not use Esri products are welcome to contact the NJ Office of GIS for assistance in getting their data and standard-compliant metadata published.
The future is rapidly approaching when one of the suite of ISO 19115 standards for geospatial metadata will be the metadata style for NJGIN. The NJ Office of GIS anticipates making the transition after Esri’s Pro software has full metadata functionality.