Contributing Metadata to InPort

To author and contribute metadata for a library to InPort, you must have an InPort account with appropriate privileges. Please contact your organization's Librarian to be set up with a new user account with the privileges appropriate for your data management responsibilities.

Roles in InPort

There are several different types of roles in InPort:

• Readers are able to search and view internally published catalog items in their libraries. They do not have any metadata creation or editing capabilities.
• Authors can review and edit metadata in Draft state in their libraries.
• Publishers can review and edit metadata, as well as approve and publish metadata in their libraries.
• Data Stewards have the same access as Readers, but can also authorize or reject InPort user roles.
• Librarians can review, edit, approve, and publish metadata in their libraries. They can also manage their organization's information, create and manage users in their libraries, and create new suborganizations under their organization.

Best Practices for Authoring Metadata

Each NMFS organization is responsible for determining specific best practices to ensure the discoverability, completeness, and quality of their metadata. Please consult with your data documentation group on the appropriate guidelines to adopt for authoring metadata.

For all Data Sets, a metadata rubric report is available as a general NMFS-wide guideline for ensuring basic levels of discoverability for metadata in InPort. The rules and scoring for this rubric are subject to change over time in accordance with emerging NMFS requirements and recommendations.