Eco Companion Australasia

Promote your collections of earth-related data
Search for environmental resources
Eco Companion is a node of the distributed Australian Spatial Data Directory (ASDD)
Search hints: enclose phrases with "double quotes" - case insensitive - join terms with AND, OR, ANDNOT - wild* will match wild, wilderness, wildlife - see help and try the following examples ...
#1: water and supply (documents must contain both words) [6]
#2: water or supply (documents can contain either word) [31 docs]
#3: water supply (as for #2 -- an "OR" search) [31 docs]
#4: "water supply" (phrase -- words must occur together) [2]
  • Catalogue records are short descriptions of ecological resources ... dataset descriptions which concisely describe available spatial data
  • Personally maintained by members using online document management facilities
  • Editorial staff oversee the collections to ensure that the content is of quality, on the topic, and up-to-date
  • Search facilities use sophisticated digital library techniques
  • Geographic coverage is Australasia

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Brief Explanations:

Discover environmental resources. The catalogue contains various collections of summary documents which concisely describe geospatial datasets. Search the Eco Companion catalogue, discover relevant summary documents, read about the resources, follow links to further information.

Members utilise simple online interfaces to guide them through the process of creating documents, and then keeping them up-to-date. Members' documents will rank highly with all Internet search services. Attract visitors to your pages with useful search keywords and simple descriptive documents, draw new clients to your business.

Catalogue records describe resources using bibliographic elements which are concise metadata (data about data), such as: Title, Author, Description, Keywords, etc. These summary documents enable improved resource discovery. They will rank highly with any search engine because the document is short, contains relevant keywords used in context, has a structured format, and uses digital library standards.

Quality is assured and the content of the collections is well-targetted. All information is personally maintained and published by members using online forms that have content checking and validation. Automatic reminders help to keep records up-to-date. Editorial staff oversee the content using the search facilities, assisted by robots that conduct searches and regularly produce summaries. The Acceptable Content Policy governs the topic and content of all documents.

Content of the catalogue is confined to the broad topic of ecological resources. This includes: environment, biodiversity, ecology, conservation, catchment management, landcare, scientific studies, flora and fauna, monitoring, observation records, species lists, natural resources, bird watching, frog watching, education, wildlife, forests, sustainable development, renewable energy, passive solar design, alternative fuels, energy-efficient building and construction, sustainable agriculture, biodynamics, marine and coast, oceans and seas, water quality, pollution, geographic information, spatial data, land information,

Geographic coverage is Australasia - Australia, New Zealand, outlying islands and territories, Australian Antarctic Territory.

Comprises various document collections

Precise searching is provided by sophisticated library services - numeric, spatial (geographic location), temporal (date), phrase, field, full-text. The facilities are interoperable with other search services, thereby contributing to virtual network libraries, such as: the Australian Spatial Data Directory (ASDD), the G7 Global Environmental Information Locator Service (GELOS), and the Global Information Locator Service (GILS).

Membership costs nothing for a basic level of service. Additional publications and services attract a scale of fees.

Acceptable Content Policy - members must abide by these guidelines, which help to ensure that the collections contain relevant documents. Editorial staff have facilities to block members from access, remove published documents, and terminate membership.

Privacy statements outline the activities and privacy issues for three classes of user: non-members (guests), members, editors. We make every effort to ensure the privacy of our users and we respect the trust that has been built.

More detailed explanations about the service are available.

This site makes minimal use of graphic images and maximal use of text ... efficient searching, fast, informative, clutter free. Of course, there is appropriate image usage for locality map thumbnail images.


www.indexgeo.com.au/ec/