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

Custom search and Advanced search
Browse the document collections
View all published dataset descriptions
Join and enjoy many benefits
Members login to maintain information
- document management facilities ensure quality
- secure connection to your private space
What is new
- published by members this month
Produce a locality map
- take the map image for your documents
Brochure explains Eco Companion
- see also brief explanations below
Editors Choices
- selected Australasian web sites
Featured search for today: conservation and sanctuary

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

Dataset descriptions
- concisely describe collections of data that are available free-of-charge or for sale
- "geospatial datasets" are collections of data with a common theme and relevant to a particular location.
- "geospatial metadata" - concise description according to Australian standards
- datasets might comprise: monthly listings of species from bird watching, collections of references to resources about a certain topic, a report from a study of some aspect of environmental management including appendices and a collection of photographs, a list of water quality measurements in streams and rivers of a certain region.
Editors choices
- categories of selected links to other Australasian web sites that the Eco Companion editors consider to be useful.

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/