Find It, Know It, Use It: How Metadata Is Finally Making Our Day Jobs Easier

Scientists and scientific data managers have long understood the importance of documenting their data to support their research, and major efforts within the geospatial community has enhanced the understanding and importance of having standard and structured metadata to facilitate the sharing of data.  Recent efforts within NOAA Fisheries to establish a centralized repository for documentation – metadata – for describing data collections and data collection programs is providing a wealth of value-added benefits to those collecting and managing their data.  This presentation will show how NOAA Fisheries metadata repository, InPort, keeps the focus on data management and supporting data managers.