diff --git a/metadig/__init__.py b/metadig/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0a5ab78
--- /dev/null
+++ b/metadig/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+__version__ = '1.0'
+
+from .checks import getType
+from .checks import isResolvable
+from .variable import isBlank
diff --git a/metadig/checks.py b/metadig/checks.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b34094b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/metadig/checks.py
@@ -0,0 +1,104 @@
+"""Metadig check utilities
+"""
+
+import sys
+import urllib2
+from urlparse import urlparse
+
+def getType(object):
+    print 'type: {}'.format(type(object))
+        
+def isResolvable(url):
+# First parse the url for a protocol, host port and path
+
+    #url = 'https://cn.dataone.org/cn/v2/resolve/urn:uuid:7098ba54-ca6f-4e35-beb3-718bd0fe58a8'
+    urlComps = urlparse(url)
+    location = urlComps.netloc
+    if(urlComps.netloc == ""):
+        return (False, '"{}" does not appear to be a URL'.format(url))
+        
+    # Check the 'schema' to see if it is an open one. Currently we 
+    # are just check for http and https.
+    knownProtocols = ['http', 'https']
+    if(urlComps.scheme not in set(knownProtocols)):
+        return (False, 'Unknown or proprietary communications protocol: "{}", known protocols: {}'.format(urlComps.scheme, ", ".join(knownProtocols)))
+        
+    request = urllib2.Request(url)
+    request.get_method = lambda : 'HEAD'
+    # Python urllib2 strangly throws an error for a http status, and the response object is returned
+    # by the exception code. 
+    try:
+        response = urllib2.urlopen(request)
+    except urllib2.HTTPError as he:
+        # An error was encountered resolving the url, check which one so that we can print 
+        # a more meaningful error message than provided by HTTPError
+        # FYI, HTTP status codes (from FAIR FM_A1.1 https://github.com/FAIRMetrics/Metrics/blob/master/Distributions/FM_A1.1.pdf)
+        if (he.code == 400):
+            return (False, "Unable to resolved URL {}: Bad request".format(url))
+        elif (he.code == 401):
+            return (False, "Unable to resolved URL {}: Unauthorized".format(url))
+        elif (he.code == 404):
+            return (False, "Unable to resolved URL {}: Not Found".format(url))
+        elif (he.code == 500):
+            return (False, "Unable to resolved URL {}: Server Error".format(url))
+        else:
+            return (False, 'Error resolving URL "{}": {} {}'.format(url, he.code, he.headers))
+    except urllib2.URLError as ue:
+        print("URLError.reason", ue.reason)
+        return (False, ue.reason[1])
+    except Exception() as e:
+        print("Exception: ", e)
+        return (False, str(e))
+    
+    if(response.code in set([200, 202, 203, 206, 301, 302, 303])):
+        return (True, "Successfully resolved the URL {}: status {}".format(url, response.code))
+    else:
+        return (False, "Successfully resolved the URL {}".format(url))
+
+        
+def getSystemMetadata(identifier, memberNode):
+    # Get the DataONE system metadata for the given identifier    
+
+    url = 'https://cn.dataone.org/cn/v2/meta/{}'.format(identifier)
+        
+    request = urllib2.Request(url)
+    request.get_method = lambda : 'HEAD'
+    # Python urllib2 strangly throws an error for a http status, and the response object is returned
+    # by the exception code. 
+    try:
+        response = urllib2.urlopen(request)
+    except urllib2.HTTPError as he:
+        # An error was encountered resolving the url, check which one so that we can print 
+        # a more meaningful error message than provided by HTTPError
+        # FYI, HTTP status codes (from FAIR FM_A1.1 https://github.com/FAIRMetrics/Metrics/blob/master/Distributions/FM_A1.1.pdf)
+        if (he.code == 400):
+            return (False, "Unable to resolved URL {}: Bad request".format(url))
+        elif (he.code == 401):
+            return (False, "Unable to resolved URL {}: Unauthorized".format(url))
+        elif (he.code == 404):
+            return (False, "Unable to resolved URL {}: Not Found".format(url))
+        elif (he.code == 500):
+            return (False, "Unable to resolved URL {}: Server Error".format(url))
+        else:
+            return (False, 'Error resolving URL "{}": {} {}'.format(url, he.code, he.headers))
+    except urllib2.URLError as ue:
+        print("URLError.reason", ue.reason)
+        return (False, ue.reason[1])
+    except Exception() as e:
+        print("Exception: ", e)
+        return (False, str(e))
+    
+    if(response.code in set([200, 202, 203, 206, 301, 302, 303])):
+        return (True, "Successfully resolved the URL {}: status {}".format(url, response.code))
+    else:
+        return (False, "Successfully resolved the URL {}".format(url))
+
+# Check if an identifier has a valid, known namespace
+#def isNamespaceValid(identifier):
+#    delimiter = ':'
+#    if(identifier.find(delimeter == -1)):
+#        return False, "Missing namespace in identifier"
+#        
+#    namespace, id = identfier.split(':', 1)
+#    
+#    return True, "The namespace is valid"
diff --git a/metadig/variable.py b/metadig/variable.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..069ed07
--- /dev/null
+++ b/metadig/variable.py
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+"""Metadig check utilities
+"""
+
+import sys
+import re
+
+import java.util.ArrayList as ArrayList
+
+def isBlank(object):
+
+  pattern = re.compile(r'\s+')
+  # Depending on the values extracted from the xpath, the following types may be returned
+  # - an int (single value, all numeric)
+  # - a string
+  # - a boolean (i.e. "Yes", "Y", "No", "No") - this type isn't expected for award
+  # - a java.util.ArrayList (multiple values, each typed as int, boolean or string)
+  if(isinstance(object, int)):
+      return False
+  elif (isinstance(object, str) or isinstance(object, unicode)):
+    # If award is a string, check that it is not all whitespace
+    objStripped = re.sub(pattern, '', object)
+    if (len(objStripped) == 0):
+        return True 
+    else:
+        return False
+  elif(isinstance(object, ArrayList)):
+    # Multiple objects exist
+    # Return as soon as a non-blank object is found
+    # Also, check if all values are blank
+    blankFound = False
+    for i in range(0, len(object)):
+      thisObj = object.get(i)
+      if (isinstance(thisObj, int)):
+          return False
+      else:
+        objStripped = re.sub(pattern, '', thisObj)
+        if (len(objStripped) == 0):
+            blankFound = True
+        else:
+            return False
+    # If we reached this point and blankFound is true, then all
+    # values are blank
+    if blankFound: 
+        return True
+  else:
+    raise Exception('Unknown variable type {}'.format(type(object)))
+
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e25b87f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+from setuptools import setup
+from setuptools import find_packages
+
+long_description = '''
+Metadig provides tools that can be used by the MetaDIG Quality Engine
+'''
+#with open("README.md", "r") as fh:
+#long_description = fh.read()
+
+setup(name='metadig',
+      version='1.0.0',
+      author="Peter Slaughter",
+      author_email="slaughter@nceas.ucsb.edu",
+      description='Metadig Quality Engine Python Library',
+      long_description=long_description,
+      url='https://github.com/NCEAS/metadig-py',
+      download_url='https://github.com/NCEAS/metadig/tarball/1.0.0',
+      license='Apache-2',
+      packages=find_packages(),
+      install_requires=[
+                        #'scipy>=0.14',
+      ],
+      classifiers=[
+          'Development Status :: 1 - Development/Unstable',
+          'License :: OSI Approved :: Apache 2 ',
+          'Programming Language :: Python :: 2',
+          'Programming Language :: Python :: 2.7',
+          'Programming Language :: Python :: 3',
+          'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.6',
+          'Topic :: Software Development :: Libraries',
+          'Topic :: Software Development :: Libraries :: Python Modules'
+      ]
+)