GCMD has recognized the importance of customization for partner
organizations and is generating subset views of the GCMD directory
through portals. Portals have made it easier for organizations to
maintain and document their data in one place without duplicating the
effort to create another online directory.
Many organizations acknowledge the importance of metadata related to
their area of interest but do not have the resources required to
manage the content. One possible solution to this dilemma is to host
the metadata through the GCMD and create a portal to view the virtual
subset of the metadata. Portals help provide science, or
application-specific focus for other agencies, science focus groups,
consortia, etc. Portals may be trademarked with the logo of an
organization while possessing the full functionality of the GCMD search
engine and tools.
Using a portal to search a virtual subset is advantageous in that
as metadata is added to the subset, it is also freely available
from the GCMD general search pages for scientists in other
disciplines to access and use. Usage statistics are also regularly
tracked and available. Over one hundred portals are already in use. Please see GCMD Portals . Some portals in the GCMD are not publicly accessible, only for internal use by specific organizations or user groups, upon request.
Currently free-text and/or a keyword interface are offered.
The GCMD encourages organizations that wish to
create a portal or have questions to contact the User Support
Office by e-mail at gcmduso@gcmd.gsfc.nasa.gov.
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