North Carolina State Government (NCGILS) ENG The North Carolina Government Information Locator Service (NCGILS) provides the public with a standardized means of finding out about the contents of public information created by government agencies. NCGILS is regarded as a prototype service. It was developed, in part, as a response to NC Executive Order 100 (issued September 12, 1996) which required the "establishment of data indexing content standards" and the "development and demonstration of a prototype project or projects that provide appropriate tools for a global state government information locator service" [in North Carolina]. Two features which distinguish NCGILS from other locator services are the inclusion of multiple metadata types and the description of some database resources to the data field level. Currently, NCGILS includes locator records for the following: LINC (Log into North Carolina) database of government statistical information; the NC Community Resource Information System, a database of government financial assistance programs; the NC Department of Commerce County Profiles Database; the NC Department of Commerce State Comparisons Database; the NC Department of Commerce Industry Profiles; the NC Department of Health and Human Services Index of Computer Databases; North Carolina state government documents cataloged in 1997 by the State Library of North Carolina; North Carolina state agency records from the North Carolina State Archives MARS (Manuscript and Archives Reference System) database; sample locator records created by selected state agencies to test various uses of NCGILS. Other metadata sources are planned for NCGILS in 1998, including the "NC State Government Statistical Register," metadata about performance measures for planning and budgeting purposes, and World-Wide Web resources produced by state government agencies. The NCGILS Coordinating Committee is endorsing the use of NCGILS as a means by which a state or local agency can comply with North Carolina public database indexing laws. The North Carolina State Archives is testing the usefulness of NCGILS for records management purposes. North Carolina Joel Sigmon NC Office of the Governor, NC Office of State Planning, Information Management Section 116 W. Jones St. Raleigh NC 27603-8003 USA jsigmon@ospl.state.nc.us 919-733-4131 919-715-3562 Home Page text/HTML http://www.ncgils.state.nc.us/ list0671 USGS ENG 19990731