MEDI is an inventory of information about marine related datasets and is used within the framework of the IOC's International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) system. The MEDI system has been operational within the IODE community since 1979, initially as IOC Manuals and Guides.

The objectives of MEDI are to maintain a global inventory of data holdings held in the IOC Member States and agencies with the following specifications:

• the inventory is a compilation of input assembled by IOC Member States and relevant agencies;

• the inventory will allow the end-user to search, as a minimum, on location, data type, temporal resolution and organizational parameters;

• the inventory will provide the end-user with information describing the selected data holdings and their sources;

• the system will ensure the widest possible coverage of data holdings in Member States.

The MEDI directory has been developed to provide a reference point for locating marine and coastal datasets and will be populated with metadata descriptions of marine datasets from IOC member states.

The MEDI authoring tool has been developed to encourage data collectors and scientists to produce metadata descriptions for their datasets. The MEDI system allows users to

• Search for regional or global datasets
• Submit metadata description to the MEDI directory

MEDI is developed and maintained by the Ocean Services Section of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC).