My Two Cents: CoRIS Engine

Mark Mc Caffrey Mark.McCaffrey at noaa.gov
Wed Oct 3 13:12:52 EDT 2001


Tom:

Agreed.  Why develop metadata in the first place if it doesn't point
directly to the data?

Mark McCaffrey

Lapointe_Tom wrote:

> To CoRIS Working Group members:
>
> Yesterday, I spent a good deal of time with the CoRIS search engine.
> Considerable progress has been made.  Everyone involved should pleased
> that we have an engine in place that the group can comment on.
>
> I have one major comment at this stage.  When I searched for CoRIS data
> in southern Florida, I found nine items ranging from bleaching reports
> to anomaly charts.  Clicking on the "Retrieve Full Record" link,
> provided me with the metadata record and a URL.  The URLs were
> inconsistent, some going directly to products, some going to general
> home pages, and others going to section pages.
>
> I think that focusing on the metadata record as the primary output might
> be putting the cart before the horse.  Just because the metadata drive
> the search engine does not mean that the metadata record should be the
> primary viewer to the product.  Our experience in NOS is that users are
> primarily interested in the product, not the metadata.  The metadata
> must be available as supportive information, but the product is first.
> I also think that focusing on the actual product will force us to "drill
> down to real products" rather than list generic home pages, or general
> sections of Web sites.  It will also identify shortcomings in the
> metadata records themselves.
>
> The same was true in the library photo gallery.  What does the user
> really want to see: a photograph with a caption, or the metadata
> record?  We all know the answer to that one.
>
> Now that we have a working search engine, I believe that we need the
> discipline of looking at things through a product perspective.   This is
> not a issue for the technical team; it is an issue for the entire
> working group.
>
> My two cents, probably worth less
>
> -Tom
>
> --
> Tom La Pointe
> 1305 East-West Highway (SSMC4/Room 9537)
> Silver Spring, MD 20910
> Phone: 301-713-3000x168, Fax: 301-713-4384, Email: Tom.Lapointe at noaa.gov
>
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--
Mark McCaffrey
Science Communications Specialist
NOAA Paleoclimatology Program/National Geophysical Data Center
325 Broadway, E/GC
DSRC Room 1B704
Boulder, CO 80305-3328

E-mail: mark.mccaffrey at noaa.gov
Phone: 303.497.6939
Fax: 303.497.6513


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