Peaks to Prairies Home

Comments to: information@peakstoprairies.org

Programs DB

Meeting Discussions
  Policy & Vocabulary
  Database Model
  Action Plan
  Database User's Guide

Last updated:
June 22, 2001  

Programs Database Project 

Policy and Controlled Vocabulary

 

4-Part Descriptive Vocabulary Model VCard Standard  Program Type Controlled Vocabulary  Geo Service Area Controlled Vocabulary

Services Controlled Vocabulary Sector Controlled Vocabulary  Classifying Environmental Assistance Resources  Adding Terms to P2 Thesaurus

P2Rx white paper dated 4/18/01 - Proposed Controlled Vocabulary Strategy for the P2Rx Topic Hub Project and Programs Database

Services Controlled Vocabulary - approved 6/15/01

Describes the services offered by programs. Three types of services were identified to make this vocabulary easier to use: 1) Area of Expertise, 2) Resources Offered, 3) Clients Served. The following list of terms was generated from vocabulary used by individual Centers in the past, the P2 Thesaurus and Paul Chalmer's method of classifying environmental assistance resources.

 

Area of Expertise	Resources Offered
Air Monitoring Biological Assay Chemical Recovery Community Development Compliance Conservation of Natural Resources Cost Accounting Energy Auditing Engineering Emergency Management Environmental Law Environmental Management (ISO 14000) Environmental Policy Facility Design International Markets Management Marketing Materials Exchange Occupational Health and Safety Pollution Prevention Permits Process Modification Product Development Purchasing Quality Control (ISO 9000) Recycling Remediation Risk Management Technology Transfer Waste Management Water Conservation	Assessment Awards Bank Loans Computer Modeling Curricula Hotlines UF Telephone help lines Inspection Intern Programs Internet Grants in Aid Information Services Library Site Assessments Research Workshops
	Clients Served
	Administrative agencies UF Government Consumers Educational institutions Industrial organizations Non-profit organizations Small Busines

4-Part Descriptive Vocabulary Model (Discussed and adopted for investigation 2/14/01)

Resources can be described and cataloged more easily and comprehensively when considering 4 categories of descriptors. These categories and preliminary list information is as follows:

• Sectors (beginning with the list Andy Bray created from the P2 Thesaurus and further relating them to the NAICS system. Fernando Parra agreed to relate them)
• Materials (Kathy Cardwell pulled material terms from the P2 Thesaurus.) 
• Processes (NEWMOA pulled broadest process terms from the P2 Thesaurus.)
• Services (Kathy Cardwell pulled services terms from the P2 Thesaurus.)

Background: Controlled vocabulary relates to both the Programs Database Project and the Topic Hub Project. It affects the projects in three way: 1) how they relate to one another; 2) how data can be shared externally; 3) making data more searchable within the databases (giving more flexibility for results). Existing vocabularies contain terms commonly used to describe pollution prevention including: 

P2 Thesaurus - (http://www.newmoa.org/prevention/hottopics/thesaurus.pdf)
NAICS/SIC (sectors) - http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/naicstab.htm 
Alpha List of Topics (EPA) - http://www.epa.gov/ebtpages/alphabet.html 
Terms of Environment (EPA) - http://www.epa.gov/OCEPAterms/ 
Terminology Reference System (EPA) - http://www.epa.gov/trs/index.htm 

The difficulty in using any of these collections is their large size which makes cataloging cumbersome, requiring trained personnel with expertise in this area. The four categories help to break down vocabularies into more manageable sizes. (Note: in May, 2001, the web group made the P2 Thesauraus available in both the Programs Database and Top Hub Database for cataloging resources.)

BASIC INFORMATION FIELDS FROM vCard STANDARD (http://www.imc.org/pdi/vcardoverview.html) and Proposed "Program Type" and "Geographic Service Area" Controlled Vocabulary  Submitted 8/4/2000 by Kathy Cardwell, Region 7 P2RIC Librarian

Contact/Program Info
Prefix	Values - Mr., Ms., Mrs., Miss, Dr.
First Name
Middle Name
Last Name
Name Suffix
Title
Department
Division
Organization
Address	Subfields: Street Address (3 lines), City, State/Territory/Province, Country, Zip Code
Telephone
Fax
Email
Time Zone	Values - PST, MST, CST, EST, AST
Web Site URL
Descriptive Info
Program Type	Values - Federal, State, Local, Educational Institution, Trade Association, Non-Governmental Organization, Non-Profit Organization, Vendor-Consultant, Small Business Assistance Program, Manufacturing Extension Program (MEP), Recycling and Material Exchange Program
Geographic Service Area	Values - National, State, Regional, City, Local (includes county, parish, municipalities, metropolitan areas such Chicago and surrounding suburbs)
Profile/Abstract	(not part of vCard standard but basic)

DRAFT POLICY FOR ADDING TERMS TO P2 THESAURUS - submitted 6/14/2000 by Sandy Broda, Region 5 WMRC Librarian

SUGGESTED VOCABULARY FOR  "INDUSTRIAL SECTOR" - Submitted June 21, 2000, by Andy Bray, NEWMOA, Regions 1&2 - Centers decided to use terms available in the P2 Thesaurus for the Topic Hub and Programs Database projects. Andy's list is a helpful starting point. The ability to use NAICS terms is also available. For an overview of this system, see http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/naicstab.htm.

The list below for Industrial Sector terms is based on the P2 Thesaurus which may be found at http://www.newmoa.org/prevention/hottopics/thesaurus.pdf. There are three terms in the Industrial Sector list below that are not included in the P2 Thesaurus (see footnotes). If this standard is adopted, a petition would be submitted to the P2 Librarians listserv to modify the P2 Thesaurus to reflect these changes.

This shared vocabulary might be used by cataloguers to describe the industrial sector expertise of a given assistance program. This might be done by adding the industrial sector descriptor terms to a field in a database, or might be encoded into web pages using some form of XML.

Although this list has been developed with programs databases in mind, it may very easily be used to describe other types of information that P2 programs and others collect and publish online. Examples of other types of information that might be described using this proposed vocabulary are: activities, news items, training, research and publications.

submitted 9/27/00 by:  Paul Chalmer, NCMS, (734) 995-4911
See also: http://ecm.ncms.org/envassist/ 

Purpose and scope  |  Classification System  |  Rationale

The purpose of this standard is to help users who are seeking environmental assistance resources to locate items appropriate to the users' needs.  By providing a comprehensive framework for classifying environmental assistance resources, it will also help funding agencies formulate strategies and evaluate programs designed to enhance the environmental assistance opportunities available to individuals and businesses.

"Users" includes both those directly needing the services, and technical assistance providers locating resources on their behalf.

"Resources" includes:

• information resources such as guidance documents, regulations, interpretations, and technical information, in both electronic and hard copy format
• commercial service providers such as vendors, consultants, laboratories, and engineering services
• non-commercial assistance providers, such as pollution prevention and compliance assistance organizations
• communications resources such as list serves, bulletin boards, and interest groups

The standard specifies a classification scheme for types of environmental assistance.  It is intended to provide a basis for:

• user interfaces for databases and directories of environmental assistance resources
• document type definitions for XML standards relating to environmental assistance
• evaluation of overall strategies for, and outcomes of, environmental assistance initiatives and programs, by funding agencies
• identification of gaps in coverage of environmental assistance programs available to small business sectors

Classification system

Environmental assistance resources are classified according to two independent criteria, with a set of categories is assigned to each criterion.  Every environmental assistance resource is assigned to one category of each of the two criteria.  By listing the categories for one criterion in a row, and the categories of the other criterion in a column, the sets of all possible assignments can be represented in a matrix.

The two criteria and their associated categories are as follows:

• Toward which business function is the assistance directed?
  • Operations
  • Administrative and regulatory ("administration")
  • Executive and financial ("executive")
• To what extent is the assistance constrained by past or ongoing business activities?
  • Not constrained ("before")
  • Constrained by ongoing activities ("during")
  • Constrained by past activities ("after")

The matrix of possible combinations appears as follows.  Each cell of the matrix contains the designated name for the resource type.

Designated names are also assigned to certain combinations of these elementary types, in accordance with typical usage.  Names recognized by this classification system are:

• "Pollution prevention", referring to the source reduction or the waste minimization categories
• "Business assistance", referring to the new capacity, modernization, or crisis assistance categories

The following guidelines may be used to assign resources to categories according to the business function criterion:

• The Operations category includes assistance directed toward manufacturing processes, including materials, equipment, and operating procedures.
• The Administration category includes assistance directed toward dealing with regulatory agencies, recordkeeping and reporting.
• The Executive category includes assistance directed toward business planning, strategic decision making, and financing.

The following guidelines may be used to assign resources to categories according to the business activity constraint criterion:

• The "before" category includes assistance directed toward design of new products or processes, where choices of materials, equipment and operating procedures are not limited by existing practices.
• The "during" category includes assistance directed toward increasing efficiency of minimizing waste of ongoing operations, for which a significant number of the currently used materials, equipment, or procedures cannot be significantly modified.
• The "after" category includes assistance directed toward the consequences of past operations.

Rationale

There are many conceivable schemes for classifying types of environmental assistance.  The scheme proposed in this standard has the following properties:

• It is based on information about the user's situation, and requires no specialized knowledge or assumptions about technical or regulatory environmental issues.
• It attempts to provide mutually exclusive (unambiguous) and exhaustive (comprehensive) categories.
• It embodies a preference hierarchy consistent with generally accepted environmental principles.

The first property (scheme based on user's situation) is intended to make the classification system particularly suitable for user interfaces.

The second property (mutually exclusive and exhaustive categories) is intended to avoid ambiguity in assigning resources to categories.  It should be considered an ideal to be approached rather than a goal actually achieved by this system, since completely eliminating ambiguity is probably unattainable.  But the scheme is based on some underlying principles which are rooted in common practice:

• The categories of the business function criterion are based on the distinction between intentions and actions.  The Executive category covers assistance directed toward business owners and executives for creating the plans and providing the means to establish the intended business activities.  The Operations category covers assistance directed toward the engineers, designers, and operators who carry out those intentions.  The Administrative category covers those who mediate between the two, and who are responsible for ensuring that the translation of intentions into action are carried out in conformance with external requirements.
• The categories of the business activity constraint criterion are based on the distinction between past, present, and future.

The third property (preference hierarchy) is intended to embody the "ounce of prevention" philosophy.  It is preferable to choose assistance as far "up" the matrix as possible, consistent with the economic and regulatory constraints on the user's activities.