A2.6 How To Register and Promote Your Organization
You can register and promote your organization with the GeoConnections Discovery Portal by entering information about your organization and/or its services and data products using online forms. Again, promotion is free.
Once your organization is registered, users can find your organization through the GeoConnections Discovery Portal, as well as the specific data products and services it has to offer.
To register your organization, follow these 5 steps:
| 1. |
Go to the GeoConnections Discovery Portal web site at
http://geodiscover.cgdi.ca
and select the Add or Update Your Content link in the home page.
|
| 2. |
Log in using an existing username and password if you have one, or select Register to create a new user account. If you are already logged-in, this page will not appear.
|
| 3. |
Select the Organizations link.
|
| 4. |
You will now be provided with a list of all organizations under your ownership. If you have just registered as a new user, you will not have any. If this is the case, select Create New Organization.
|
| 5. |
Enter the required information using the example in A2.4.4.1, Recommended Metadata Fields for Organizations, as a guide.
|
If you need help, select Help/FAQ on the GeoConnections Discovery Portal menu bar at the top of the web page; then, in the new page that opens, select Tutorial. The tutorial explains the entire procedure.
A2.6.1 Recommended Metadata Fields for Organizations
When you register your organization, there are several essential metadata fields that you must complete. The following example of an organization entry shows the type of information that you should enter for each field.
Helpful tips:
 |
The fields in red (in the manual) are mandatory and must be completed. |
|
The remaining fields are valuable and important and it is recommended that they be completed, but they are optional. |
|
Under the Mission statement and General Profile, you must use proper sentence structure, grammar, and spelling and, most importantly, provide a good description of your organization. Description lengths will vary. |
|
You can also use the Clean Up Text button here to clear ragged edges or tags from text that you have cut and pasted into this field from different sources (i.e. the Web). |
|
Areas of involvement/positioning of your organization include:
Thematic areas: Agriculture, atmosphere, cartography, data distribution, directory services, earth sciences/geology, education and training, environment, forestry, government agency, ice and oceans, land use, mapping, software and systems, survey, value added.
Work and product types: Consulting, databases, engineering, satellite imagery, research, software, statistics.
|
Example:
GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR ORGANIZATION
The full formal name of your organization (any length):
Acronym for your organization (any length): CCFM
Parent organization or organization type:
Government of Canada Federal Departments / Organizations >
Natural Resources Canada > Canadian Forest Service
Street address (as would be useful to visitors):
Address: 580 Booth Street, 7th floor
City: Ottawa
Province/State: Ontario
Country: Canada
Postal Code/ZIP Code: K1A 0E4
Postal address (as an envelope should be addressed):
Address: Room 7-C3, 580 Booth Street
City: Ottawa
Province/State: Ontario
Country: Canada
Postal Code/ZIP Code: K1A 0E4
DESCRIPTION OF YOUR ORGANIZATION
Mission statement of your organization (any length of free text):
The Canadian Council of Forest Ministers (CCFM) founded the National Forestry Database Program (NFDP) in 1990 to establish a comprehensive national forestry database, to develop a public information program, and to provide forestry information to the federal, provincial and territorial policy processes.
Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), Canadian Forest Service (CFS) developed and maintains the National Forestry Database. The CFS has responsibility for disseminating national forestry statistics and for responding to questions from the public.
General profile of your organization (any length of free text):
The National Forestry Database (NFD) is the central database used to compile Canada's national forestry statistics. The database is structured to permit a description of the level of activity in any period, and to mark change in activity and in the resource itself. Most of the provincial and territorial data appearing in the NFD are provided each year to the database managers by the provincial or territorial resource management organizations. The CFS compiles information for federal lands from data provided by the responsible federal departments. Forest inventory data are compiled every five years.
Positioning of your organization
Thematic Areas (select at least one): Forestry, Government Agency, Data Distribution
Work and Product Types (select at least one): Statistics, Databases
Contacts within your organization
Central Contact Point:
Phone number (possibly the switchboard): +01-613-947-9074
Fax number: +01-506-452-3525
Email address (e.g. postmaster or info): rjacques@nrcan.gc.ca
Commercial contact person (if applicable):
Name:
Phone number:
Fax number:
Email address:
Technical contact person (if applicable):
Name: Brian Haddon
Phone number: +01-613-947-9065
Fax number: +01-613-947-9020
Email address: bhaddon@nrcan.gc.ca
Internet resources provided by your organization:
URL of your organization's home page (e.g. http://geodiscover.cgdi.ca):
http://nfdp.ccfm.org/
URL for FTP access (e.g. ftp://ftp.CCRS.NRCan.gc.ca):
A2.7 Searching or Browsing Databases in the GeoConnections Discovery Portal
Users can find the specific geospatial resources they are looking for by searching or browsing the GeoConnections Discovery Portal for databases (catalogues or inventories), and then in turn searching for a specific data product. There are two main types of searches, the single database search and the distributed database search.
A2.7.1 Single Database Search in the GeoConnections Discovery Portal
Figure 32, Searching a Single Database, illustrates what happens when a single database is searched using the GeoConnections Discovery Portal search function.
Figure 32 Searching a Single Database
A2.7.2 Distributed Database Search in the GeoConnections Discovery Portal
Users can also search multiple distributed databases (containing catalogues or inventories) in parallel, by sending their search request to many databases at the same time. As each database responds to the request, the discovery mechanism amalgamates, formats and presents the results to them.
Figure 33, Searching Distributed Databases, depicts the process of searching multiple databases in different locations. Distributed searching is relatively transparent to the user, who may not realize that physically separate databases are being queried.
Figure 33 Searching Distributed Databases