The following procedure is aimed at individuals and small groups that interested in submitting their own database or a database that was initiated some time ago.  The descriptions of these steps range from specific to general since all databases do not have the same data or structure.  Also, the steps may change as we, the ERP staff and the data contributors, develop this system.  The procedure to add data to a larger, more standardized, Department-wide, multispecies database will have to follow steps specific to that process which are not finalized.

FIRST, you should want to share your information with others, but will have the ability to determine which groups of people should be able to view the data you are submitting.  Currently, these groups include selected cooperators from other government agencies and non-government organizations within the California Bay-Delta Authority (CBDA) sphere, as these groups provide us with data that they have collected.

SECOND, the data set should contain a shape file, or geospatial coordinates in digital format for each observation or location given in either Latitude/ Longitude or Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinates.

THIRD, minimally the acceptable data includes at least pertinent observation data (e.g., the observer, date of observation, what was observed and how many) in a digital format.

FOURTH, the data should be accompanied by a description of the data set.  The Metadata Guidelines provide the needed direction.

FIFTH, we suggest that contributors check the ERPIN site and realize how tabular data (database data) are displayed in the ERPIN viewer.  The contributor may wish to alter the order of the fields to insure display of the important data when the tabular data is first displayed.  Likewise, so fields may be deleted from the data set displayed on the ERPIN viewer but remain in the database if we are to facilitate handling of requests for the original database.

SIXTH, we will prepare the data to go into the system.  The contributor may have to answer our questions, if we have any, during this process.   We will then inform you and other acceptable users that your data when it is available on ERPIN Viewer.

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