| A collection is a logical grouping of EIMS records based upon organization, topic, or other criteria. For example, the NCEA collection contains all records within EIMS that are owned by the NCEA organization. |
| The term Collection Librarian is used to describe a Librarian whose scope of responsibility comprises only those entries for a specific collection within a partner organization. |
| A Cross-Partner Collection in EIMS has shared ownership between two or more partners. |
| A Cross-Partner record in EIMS has shared ownership between two or more partners. The record will show up in searches by any of the co-owning partners. |
| The term Cross-Partner Librarian is used to describe Librarians whose scope of responsibility stretches across multiple partner organizations. |
| Data Entry Person – The person who enters an individual record in EIMS. This person is not necessarily the author of the metadata content. |
| The EIMS Administrator is a Metadata Librarian assigned to ensure compliance with system standards. The EIMS Administrator can review and edit any record in the system as well as designate the permissions of other Librarians. |
| An EIMS record is the metadata entered to describe a single Information Object. This may also be referred to as an EIMS entry, a Metadata entry, or a Metadata record. |
| The EIMS identification number for a specific metadata record generated by the system upon submission of a completed Metadata Entry Main Page. |
| A Field is an Information Element – a single element (piece) of data on forms and reports. For example, the author, journal name, and publication date are all fields that provide data about a journal article. Fields may also be referred to as Metadata Elements. |
| Government Performance and Results Act. This statute creates a government-wide performance tracking system based upon a structure of goals, objectives, sub-objectives, and performance measures. |
| An Information Component is a logical grouping of Information Elements for the purpose of data entry and presentation. EIMS has a data entry page and a section on the full Metadata Report for all Information Components applicable for the different Information Types. |
| Information Elements are bits of information represented as fields on data entry forms and reports. For example, the author, journal name, and publication date are all Information Elements that provide data about a journal article. Information Elements may also be referred to as Metadata Elements or Fields. |
| An Information Object is the scientic product described by the metadata in EIMS. For example, in a library card catalog, the information on each card is the Metadata and the book to which it refers is the Information Object. |
| The Information Type categorizes the Information Objects in EIMS. There are nine types of Information Objects: Project, Data Set, Database, Spatial Data, Model, Document, Multimedia, Web Site, and Meeting. |
| A keyword is a descriptive term associated with an EIMS record in order to facilitate searches by topic. |
| Metadata is data about data. In EIMS, it refers to a collection of Information Elements (fields) used to characterize an Information Object such as a journal article or database. For many complex environmental information resources (such as an environmental model or geospatial data set) a significant amount of standardized metadata is required to adequately characterize the resource so a reviewer can understand the specific nature of the resource and make judgments about its potential use. As a general rule, the more extensive the metadata, the greater the usefulness of the record. |
| Metadata Elements are bits of information represented as fields on data entry forms and reports. For example, the author, journal name, and publication date are all Metadata Elements that provide data about a journal article. Metadata Elements may also be referred to as Information Elements or Fields. |
| A Metadata entry is the metadata entered to describe a single Information Object. This may also be referred to as an EIMS entry, an EIMS record, or a Metadata record. |
| Metadata Librarians are EIMS users with the responsibility of managing EIMS content to ensure data integrity and security. Metadata entered into the system is never available to the full user-base until the applicable Librarian has reviewed and released it. There are four types of Metadata Librarians: EIMS Administrator, Partner Librarian, Collection Librarian, and Cross-Partner Librarian. |
An EIMS Partner is an inter- or intra-agency organization, regional office, program, or project that contributes to the content of the system. The purpose of dividing the EIMS content into Partner Collections is to manage data ownership and control write access. EIMS Partners include the following:
- National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA)
- National Center for Environmental Research (NCER)
- National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL)
- National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL)
- National Risk Management Research Laboratory (NRMRL)
- Office of Resources Management and Administration (ORMA)
- Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP)
- Human Exposure Database System (HEDS)
- Regional Environmental Vulnerability Assessment (ReVA)
- Office of Environmental Information
- Office of Water
- Surf Your Watershed Program
- EPA Regional Offices
- Geospatial Data Index (GDI)
- Global Change Research Program
- Great Lakes National Program Office (GLNPO)
- Enviro Science e-Print
- Illinois State Water Survey
Partners have primary responsibility for metadata administration in EIMS. (Records with no Partner affiliation are refered to as EPA-General.) |
| The term Partner Librarian is used to describe Librarians whose scope of responsibility includes only one partner organization. (This includes the EPA-General Partner Librarian.) |
| Product and Scientific Product are other names for an Information Object in EIMS. |
| The responsibilities and/or editing privileges granted to a registered EIMS user or organization. |
