On April 11, 1994, President Clinton signed Executive Order 12906, "Coordinating Geographic Data Acquisition and Access: The National Spatial Data Infrastructure." This executive order instructs Federal agencies to use the FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Meta Data to document new geospatial data beginning in 1995, and to provide these meta data to the public through the National Geospatial Data Clearinghouse.

On September 17, 1996, the Governor’s Task Force on Information Resource Management issued ‘Technology Policy 96-18 Geographic Information Systems,’ which states: “A GIS Meta Data Clearinghouse will be established in the State Library. The clearinghouse will be set up to provide descriptions of the data available to users and easy access to data currently residing within State and local agencies. Other data coordination issues will be addressed through a work group (established by the NYS GIS Coordinating Body).”