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Information Management Directory
Guidelines for the Information Mangement Directory
Jeffrey B. Frithsen and Donald E. Strebel
April 1995
View the Guidelines (41 pp, 118 Kb, about PDF)
View the Update (12 pp, 25 Kb, about PDF)
The Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP) is an interagency effort coordinated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and designed to collect information to assess the condition of the nation's ecological resources. The Information Management System for EMAP was developed to capture, preserve, and provide to users data and information collected and prepared by the program. This report describes the data directory component of the EMAP Information Management System. Together with the data catalog and dictionary, the directory is one of three components that provides information about data (metadata) to users. The directory contains information that summarizes the contents of data sets and is one of the principal means by which users will identify, select, and locate EMAP data.
This document presents a summary of the metadata components for the EMAP Information Management System, design requirements for the directory, and the directory structure that was developed in response to those requirements. The requirements for the directory were determined by EMAP assessment scientists and other users through multiple joint application design sessions and feedback provided through EMAP task group information managers. In response to these requirements, the directory was designed as an integral component of the EMAP relational data base. The structure of the directory is, therefore, a set of fields organized in relational tables.
This report also contains guidelines for the compilation of directory entries. An Oracle form is presented to assist writing directory entries. The form directly interfaces to the database thus providing menus for valid field entries. The form also minimizes the need to reenter information already in the data base due to links between data base directory fields and the EMAP contact data base.