Using a cruise report to generate XML metadata

Since 2005 metadata generation at the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping/Joint Hydrographic Center has slowly evolved from a painful and tedious process of copying and pasting, to generate hundreds of files, to using an automated system that generates 90% of the needed metadata from the data collected on cruises. However there remained one piece missing to the automated system- the wordy part of the metadata that deals with information such as the attribute accuracy report, abstract and the process description. This information cannot be mined from the raw survey data. This paper illustrates how to generate a template from a Microsoft Word based cruise report that can be used in conjunction with another template (generated from the raw data collected on a cruise) to create XML metadata ready for submission to the NOAA/National Geophysical Data Center.