As a company, it is continuing to develop new products which make it much easier for the user to search across its journals and pull up full text. Of course, this comes at a price for the institutions providing this service. One positive note on ejournals was voiced by the staff of the Scripps Library. A snapshot survey conducted this summer compared the receipt of print journals with their electronic counterparts. Consequently, more people need to be fluent in the creation of metadata.
Librarians can have a role in helping people create metadata and in facilitating access to data.
Anne Ball, NOAA's Coastal Services Center, gave an overview of the role and elements of metadata. Jerry Melillo, MBL's Ecosystems Center, discussed the importance of sharing data and observations in resolving global environmental issues. It provides a gateway for searching publicly available DNA and protein sequences, Medline, and other related databases. While the comprehensive piece is still being worked on, the site does help you locate datasets that may be useful in environmental research. This is a catalogue of all the libraries of Fisheries and Oceans Canada.