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Basic Information
EPA’s Terminology Services are a suite of tools and services intended to address several issues related to information management. These areas are:
- Understanding EPA: EPA programs often define terms and acronyms differently, or use different terms to mean the same thing. Understanding the terms we use is essential to properly interpret information used in decision making. To be transparent, EPA needs to provide access to its terminology.
- Information Access: EPA expends significant resources collecting information. Making that information ‘findable’ requires that it be cataloged and indexed. Terminology Services provides the tools and services needed to develop and manage vocabularies used to catalog and index our information assets.
- Semantic Web: We need to manage terminology to position the agency for the Semantic Web.
Terminology Services are part of the work of the Office of Environmental Information's Data Standards Branch. In addition to support from Branch staff, access to contractor support for terminology development can be arranged.
The Data Standards Branch has purchased an enterprise license for Synaptica KMS. This software is used for creating and managing terminology. After appropriate training, access to this tool is available at no cost to EPA program offices. Other partners should contact the Data Standards Branch at ETSS_Admin@epamail.epa.gov for further information.