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Index of Help Topics
 What Does a Keyword Search Do?
Keyword Browser
California Environmental Catalog
Reviewed Links
Cal OCEAN Web Search
Add Resource or URL
What Does a Keyword Search Do? (top of page)
Typing in a keyword in the search box and pressing Search does five tasks:
- If available, the user is presented with a list of narrower, broader and similar terms to faciliate the search to keywords utilized by the system's Keyword Browser. They are hyperlinked to additional searches.
- If metadata is available for the keyword typed into the searchbox, then a search of the California Environmental Information Catalog is performed with the results displayed, if any. The first column is the title of the metadata, the second column provides a link to the metadata, and the third column provides a link to the online resource (i.e., URL) of the metadata, if available.
- If background information exists and if pre-selected links exist, then they will be displayed in the Reviewed Links Section.
- If the keyword typed into the box matches keywords found from the Ocean Web Search Webcrawler, then the results will be displayed. The web sites that are crawled by the Webcrawler are available below.
- Links are also provided to the Berkeley Digital Library to expand the search of the keyword to all Environmental Documents housed at the Berkeley Digital Library; to the California Digital Library to expand the search to digital documents referred to in the California Digital Library; to the Cal OCEAN Legislative Search Page so that searches can be performed on current legislation; and to the Eureka Search Engine so that a search can be performed on all California government servers. Links are also provided to the National Sea Grant Depository and the Coastal Services Center Library, so that the user may perform additional searches on documents relating to the coast and ocean.
Keyword Browser Help (top of page)
The keyword browser allows a user to browse keywords and related keywords within a tree-like structure. The user is then presented with narrower and broader terms to either limit or expand the search. Keywords matching those contained within CERES Webs and Catalogs are presented as links to more information regarding the keyword.
California Environmental Catalog Help (top of page)
Information on California Environmental Information Catalogs may be found through CERES webs. The Catalog is an online directory for reporting and discovery of information resources for California. Participants include cities, counties, utilities, state and federal agencies, private businesses and academic institutions that have spatial and other types of data resources. The Catalog has been developed through a collaborative effort with the California Geographic Information Association, California Environmental Resources Evaluation System, and the Federal Geographic Data Committee.
The search is performed matching the keyword entered into the Cal OCEAN Keyword search box with the keywords chosen by the above participants from lists of controlled vocabulary terms. The information resources are displayed in this section if the keyword entered matches the keyword chosen by the participants. Selecting links from the Broader Term, Narrower Term, Related Term or Like Term gives a greater probability of finding catalog entries. In addition, browsing by theme from the Cal OCEAN Home Page, allows a user to see the keyword hierarchy and offers an alternative way of finding catalog entries.
Reviewed Links Help (top of page)
Background information and reviewed links are placed in this area if a keyword search is done on controlled vocabulary terms. The additional information may be used as starting points in addition to the search results.
Cal OCEAN Web Search (top of page)
The Cal OCEAN Web Search is a web-crawling search engine that searches the following sites:
- California Resources Agency
- California Coastal Commission
- California Coastal Conservancy
- California Department of Boating and Waterways
- California Department of Conservation
- California Department of Fish and Game
- California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
- California Department of Parks and Recreation
- California Department of Water Resources
- California Environmental Resource Evaluation System
- Cal OCEAN Web
- CERES Environmental Law
- California State Lands Commission
- California Environmental Protection Agency
- Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment
- California State Water Resources Control Board
- California Health and Welfare Agency
- Department of Health Services
- National Sea Grant
- California Sea Grant
- National Depository
- Southern California Sea Grant
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography Library
- Scripps Research Institute
- U.S. Department of Agriculture
- Forest Service
- Natural Resources Conservation Service
- U.S. Department of Commerce
- Environmental Information Services
- National Climatic Data Center
- National Geophysical Data Center
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Coastal Ocean Program
- Coastal Services Center
- National Marine Fisheries Service
- National Ocean Service
- National Oceanic Data Center
- National Weather Service
- Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research
- State of the Coast
- Western Regional Center
- U.S. Department of Defense
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
- U.S. Navy
- U.S. Department of the Interior
- U.S. Bureau of Land Management
- U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
- U.S. Geological Survey
- U.S. Minerals Management Service
- U.S. National Park Service
- U.S. Department of Transportation
- U.S. Coast Guard
- U.S. Maritime Administration
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- Office of Water
- Office of Science and Technology
- Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds
- Region 9
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Results are returned sorted by rank, unless modified in the search options by the user. For more detailed help information on formulating searches using the Cal OCEAN Web Crawler, please visit the Help for Broker Queries.
Add Resource or URL Help (top of page)
There are three ways in which you may add a resource or URL to the Cal OCEAN web.
- You may add your site via the California Environmental Information Catalogs at http://ceres.ca.gov/catalog. To create a catalog, follow these abbreviated steps (a full tutorial is available at the California Environmental Information Catalog Site):
- Go to the URL http://ceres.ca.gov/catalog.
- Next to the Enter Metadata Heading, click on the California Metadata Management System link.
- Under the Web-based System Heading, click on the Create a New Catalog link.
- Enter the required information (marked with a red asterisk) to create a catalog. You only need to do this once. You may also return to change any of the information at any time.
- Create the catalog by pushing the button at the bottom of the page and the system will return, telling you if you are successful in creating a catalog. Follow any instructions it may offer you. If you are successful, you will be authorized to edit your new catalog.
- You will be offered browsing and editing choices at the bottom of the page.
- To create a new record, click on the New Record link.
- Enter the required information (marked with a red asterisk for the CERES catalog - to also upload to the National Depository, also fill in the required information marked with a blue asterisk).
- Create the new record and the system will tell you whether you were successful in creating the record.
- You can control the contact information, the distribution information, the keywords chosen (or create your own in our User-Defined Section), and the abstract seen. As a side note, we have not created a pick list of keywords for the Cal OCEAN system (available in the near future). To have your resource or URL appear under any particular keyword under our Information Indexes:By Category section, you will have to type the keyword in the User Defined Keyword Section. Be sure to type the word(s) in the following manner: First letter of the phrase is upper-case and all other letters are in lower case. For example, "Vessel Traffic System", should be entered in the User Defined Keyword System as "Vessel traffic system". You only need to enter keywords once, since it will be available to subsequent new records within the particular catalog you are working on. Feel free to utilize other User Defined Keywords that are not part of the Cal OCEAN keyword hierarchy. You may have a particular term that you and your users utilize that is not in our system. In that case, your keyword will not be accessible by the Information Indexes:By Category browsing structure, but will be accessible by entering the keyword in our Keyword Search box on the home page. As a hint, make sure you choose the keyword "ocean" under the Natural Environment pick list to ensure greatest indexing.
- You can create as many records as you want within your catalog system and you create as many catalogs as needed.
- When you are done, simply close the browser.
- Return to the California Metadata Management System when you want to edit or add more records. Instead of Creating a New Catalog under the Web-based System Heading mentioned above, choose the Authorize to Edit a Catalog link to get back to your catalog. You will need your password.
- A tutorial is available for you to use, as well as background information and hypertext links that offer detailed information about particular fields.
- You may send us your URL and we can manually link your site in our Reviewed Links section. This process takes a bit longer, since we must review your site thoroughly and then tag it within our pages. Please e-mail the following to calocean@resources.ca.gov:
- Name
- E-mail address
- Site Title
- Site URL
- Phone Number
- Category and Keyword(s) that you want your site to appear on
- Brief Description of Site
We will notify you when we have linked your site.
- You may send us your URL and our web crawler can crawl your site, creating a list of keywords that the Cal OCEAN Web Search Engine will utilize. Simply e-mail your URL to calocean@resources.ca.gov. You may check back to this page to see if we have added your site to our Ocean Broker.
In addition to the above three methods, we can also have any paper documents scanned for you and indexed via the Berkeley Digital Library, one of CERES's partners. The document wil be scanned into .gif format and will also be scanned via OCR for keyword indexing purposes. If you would like your California Ocean-Related document scanned, please send your document to:
The California Resources Agency
1416 9th Street, Suite 1311
Sacramento, CA 95814
Attn: Ocean Resources Management Program
Scanning of your document in addition to utilizing the above cataloging system provides a powerful means of indexing your document and having it searchable by keywords generated either automatically or controlled by you. You can also control distribution information as well as contact information. For more information on any of these systems, please contact us at calocean@resources.ca.gov.
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This file last modified on: Tuesday, January 24, 2006.