UNEP's MdD

[James.McKenna@unep.org (McKenna, James)]

Hello,

Just thought I'd introduce myself and UNEP's Meta-data Directory (see attached).  I'm currently 
coordinating this project and would like to see if there are ways to share experience: i.e. link 
and/or harmonize meta-data information between our institutes.  I'm trying to get up to speed on 
ERIN.  To find out more about the UNEP MdD, read on or download the software from our Website 
(below.  Our Web meta-data entries are being edited and will be ready next week, but you can see 
them in the software.)

Best,
James McKenna

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The UNEP Meta-data Directory
Oct. 1996

UNEP-DEIA’s (Division of Environmental Information and Assessment) mission statement is “to 
provide the world community with improved access to meaningful environmental data and 
information (free of charge), and to help increase the capacity of governments to use 
environmental information for decision-making and action planning for sustainable human 
development.”  Within UNEP-DEIA, the EIN’s (Environmental Information Networking Unit) Meta-data 
Project is developing a sustainable means to collect, archive and distribute harmonized, 
environmental meta-data, particularly being sensitive to satisfying needs from developing 
nations and countries with economies in transition.
 
For the UNEP Meta-data Directory, the term “Meta-data” is defined as reference data about the 
content and location of (environmental) data and information holdings.  Meta-data are the 
high-level “overview” or informational abstract that describes (and points to) a particular 
dataset, report, map or institute.  Meta-data assists users by providing access to institutes 
and/or data.

The UNEP Meta-data Directory serves as a library card catalogue of environmental information.  
It will contain “card entries” (or meta-data descriptions) of institutes and datasets.  Similar 
to the library card catalogue, the meta-data directory allows users to search for environmental 
information by institute name or datset (title), contact person (author), theme, keyword and 
location (subject), as well as other criteria.

Sample queries to this system may be: How many institutes are working on Biodiversity in Europe 
and how can I contact them?  Where are datasets available about vegetation in Kenya and how can 
I get them?

Since the goal of this software is to provide information free of charge to as large a global 
audience as possible, the audience for this directory is primarily (but not limited to) the 
environmental-information-seeker who does not have network (Internet) access.  Data in the 
directory can be interchanged freely among users and can be uploaded to the World Wide Web for 
those users with Internet connectivity.

The UNEP Meta-data Directory is a PC reference system (a 486PC with 8mb RAM and Windows is 
required) that provides environmental information to users via a user-friendly interface.  The 
tool is designed to allow simple data entry (there are only ten mandatory fields for an 
institute entry or a dataset entry), uncomplicated data queries and easy data exchange between 
any organizations that use a basic international meta-data standard, such as the “Directory 
Interchange Format” (DIF) of NASA and others within the Committee of Earth Observing Satellites 
(CEOS).

The Directory is now ready for use.  In some developing countries, it is being used at the 
national level.  To sample the Meta-data Directory yourself, feel free to visit our Website 
(http://www.grid.unep.no/) or contact James McKenna at UNEP: Tel: 254.2.623899 or Fax: 
254.2.624315 or Email: mckennaj@unep.no.  He will register your centre among the network of 
cooperating centres and supply you with your personalized software and security codes.  UNEP is 
promoting its use and always looking for more partners with whom to share environmental 
information.



  __________________________________________________________________
 /| James McKenna [mckennaj@unep.org]        | +---+---+---+---+    |
|/| Programme Officer                        | | G | R | I | D |    |
|/| UNEP GRID                                | +---+---+---+---+    |
|/| P.O. Box 30552                           | UNEP/GRID            |
|/| Nairobi, Kenya                           | Global Resource      |
|/| Phone: +254-2-623899; Fax: +254-2-624315 | Information Database |
|/| WWW  :         http://www.grid.unep.org/ |                      |
|/|_________________________________________________________________|
|/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/