Are You Looking for Information on Natural Resources and the Environment in Ethiopia?
ENRAEMED can help you!
What is ENRAEMED?
ENRAEMED stands for the Ethiopian Natural Resources And Environmental Meta-Database.
This metadatabase is operated by a partnership of major Ethiopian institutions concerned with the generation, storage and dissemination of data related to natural resources and the environment in the broadest sense. They work together to facilitate access to and exchange of their information. ENRAEMED, the Amharic expression for "Let's walk together!" and the name of the metadatabase software suite, reflects the spirit of this metadatabase undertaking.
What is meta-data?
Metadata is information about data sets, which will help you to search for data and find out if they are of interest to you, how you can obtain them and a lot more. A metadatabase basically functions like a catalogue in a library. However, a computerized reference system like ENRAEMED is much more elaborate than a usual library catalogue and provides more sophisticated and effective search and access facilities.
Data sets are sources of information of different kinds. They can be bibliographic (books, reports, periodicals) or geo-spatial (maps, satellite images, aerial photographs) or other like audio-visual materials.
The Partner institutions are all custodians of large numbers of data sets, which are stored either in hard copy in their libraries or in digital form in computerized information centres.
Why do you need metadata?
Many people looking for data experience difficulties finding out what information is available and where. Even within one institution, staff may have problems finding the information they need. Also, the conditions of access to information are not always transparent to the users.
The Government of Ethiopia has recognized that good access to information is needed for proper planning, development and management of natural resources and the environment. ENRAEMED is a response to this felt need.
Metadata generate various benefits for both users and custodians of data.
For potential users of data, meta-data are a powerful tool to find out what data are available, whether it suits their purposes,
where to find it and how to access it. Using the metadatabase helps them to avoid the time and energy-consuming search for
data and increases the efficiency of research work.
For custodian institutions generating, storing and disseminating data, the benefits are manifold.
- Using the metadatabase avoids duplication of efforts and costs in data gathering and compilation. It also helps in better managing data collections and in maintaining knowledge about the datasets under their custody when staff leaves the institution.
- In a broader perspective, the metadatabase helps custodian institutions to "advertise" their data sets and, hence, to fulfill their mandate of disseminating data to the public.
- Improved dissemination of data increases the social and economic benefit of the large capital invested in information. The metadatabase makes it possible, also, to render information services to the public at a lower cost and more effectively.
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