NCDDC supports ecosystem stewardship by providing access to the nation's coastal data resources. NCDDC achieves this capability through the integration of diverse coastal data distributed in multiple repositories and provides these data to users via the Internet using established and emerging technologies. NCDDC developed the Metadata Enterprise Resource Management Aid (MERMAid) tool as a mechanism by which NCDDC partners can generate, validate, manage, and publish metadata.

Features

• Secure Web-based environment offers platform independence

• Custom organization

• Robust "help" functions

• Enhanced validation

MERMAid is a Web-based tool that allows coastal data providers to create and manage metadata in a secure environment using a web browser. MERMAid allows users to establish unlimited metadata databases to organize their metadata records any way they see fit (i.e., by project, data type, personnel, etc.). It is designed around an object model that can be configured to match an organization's security requirements, individual experience levels, and existing metadata processes. 

The underlying application is the open-source Z-Object Publishing Environment (ZOPE). Contents of records are stored as generic objects in an Object Oriented Database (OODB). MERMAid features robust "help functions" that incorporate the production rules specified in the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Standards and Workbook. MERMAid also continuously validates the record against the production rules of the standard being used.

Supported Standards

• FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM)
  

• FGDC Biological Profile

• FGDC Shoreline Profile

• FGDC Remote Sensing Extensions

• Ecological Metadata Language (EML)

• MAchine-Readable Cataloging (MARC)

Supported Formats

• XML
  

• HTML
  
• Text

Discovery

All validated records published from MERMAid are harvested by the Geospatial One-Stop (GOS) weekly or by the National Spatial Data Infrastructures (NSDI) FGDC Clearinghouse.