In May of 1999, the Wisconsin Land Information Clearinghouse (WISCLINC) Expansion Project was signed into contract between the Office of Land Information Services and the State Cartographer's Office. A month later, a consolidated Wisconsin grant application to the FGDC 1999 Cooperative Agreements Program was accepted. This grant program entitled, "Don't Duck Metadata," has some overlapping goals with the WISCLINC Expansion contract. Together, these two sources promise a renewed investment in the vision of of WISCLINC as a "..."front door" to geospatial data discovery and dissemination in Wisconsin." and a "... starting point and navigation aid to those searching for or involved with spatial data in Wisconsin." as it was stated five years ago.

In May of 1998, the State Cartographer's Office received some financial support from the WLIB '...for development of the Wisconsin Land Information Program Clearinghouse for land information." Access to this funding was contingent upon a contract essentially laying out a scope of work to be performed on the Clearinghouse. Such a contract was assembled and submitted for approval in July of 1998 at which time it was determined that the contract would need approval from the WLC and the WLIB.

In March, 1998, the State Cartographer's Office created and staffed the position of Outreach Specialist, in a half-time capacity. This position began in April with primary duties including leadership to implement strategies for the creation and distribution of metadata for geospatial databases of Wisconsin as well as enhancing the Wisconsin Land Information Clearinghouse (WISCLINC).

WISCLINC made modest steps forward from 1997-98 with contributions of time and resources coming from the State Cartographer's Office, in the role of custodian of the clearinghouse and its accompanying website, and clearinghouse contributors who continued at irregular intervals to submit geospatial metadata and data. Much was accomplished in the way of 'rounding out' the resources and information available through the clearinghouse. The Metadata Tool Exercise, the Metadata Primer, a Metadata Tool Review, and a new website design are some of the resources that were compiled and added to WISCLINC during this time.

WISCLINC was established under a pilot project carried out by the Wisconsin State Cartographer's Office (SCO) in 1994-95. Funded by the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), the Wisconsin Land Information Board (WLIB) and the SCO, the project's objectives were:

1. to collect and compile NSDI compliant metadata describing primary geospatial data holdings of cooperating Wisconsin agencies,
2. to establish a Clearinghouse node on the Internet to post and give access to this metadata, and
3. to establish NSDI Clearinghouse activities as an integral component of the Wisconsin Land Information Program.

The FGDC Cooperative Agreements Program (CAP) project was entitled the Wisconsin NSDI Clearinghouse Initiative and was completed in 1995, making Wisconsin one of the first five nodes (6/95) of the NSDI Clearinghouse nodes today. The final report from the Wisconsin NSDI Clearinghouse Initiative was submitted to the FGDC and the WLIB in December, 1995.

The role of the WISCLINC web site has evolved since that initial project. WISCLINC is seen as a "front door" to geospatial data discovery and dissemination in Wisconsin. This function is served primarily by the continued maintenance and expansion of the NSDI Clearinghouse node, as well as the posting of news items, links to relevant agencies and on-line resources, and instructional information on metadata and data searching. WISCLINC is intended to be a starting point and navigation aid to those searching for or involved with spatial data in Wisconsin.

NSDI has provided the standards and protocols necessary for the sharing of data; FGDC has promoted this sharing across the country; WLIB coordinates spatial data issues within Wisconsin; and the SCO has handled the logistics of setting up and maintaining the WISCLINC clearinghouse node. Together with various cooperating agencies, these bodies developed this vision for WISCLINC.