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1) What will I find in the Clearinghouse's Resource Directory?

The Resource Directory is an electronic database with more than 1000 entries covering the main topics addressed by the Aarhus Convention. Each entry has:

2) How are resources organized in the Clearinghouse?

Entries to the Resource Directory are found under Convention-related topics. They are also classified by type of resource (for example, as "Legislation", "Policy", "Training materials") and according to the type of publisher of the resource (i.e. "Academia", "Government", "Intergovernmental Organizations" or "Nongovernmental Organizations").

Resources of special relevance to one country are also found under the country name. Resources spanning several countries are generally classified by continent (for example, "AFRICA").

Resources published by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) are found under "EUROPE". Resources published by the European Commission appear under "European Commission".

In some cases, an international organization's resource will be found under the country where the headquarters of the organization is located. This allows the resource to be featured under "New Resources" on the Home page of the Clearinghouse.

3) How can I find a resource on a specific topic?

To find a resource from the Clearinghouse's Home page, click on the small black arrows to open one of the drop-down lists ("Which", "What", "Who" or "Where") and scroll over the desired term and click your mouse. A list of resources falling under the selected term will appear in the Resource Directory page. Selecting additional terms from the coloured drop down lists will further narrow the list of resources.

The list can be sorted by the Date of entry into the Resource Directory, by Publisher or alphabetically by Title.

To select more than one type, topic etc. and then execute a simultaneous search, go to the Advanced search page and tick off the desired boxes. For searches involving more than one country, hold down the control key for multiple selections.

4) How can I use your syndicated feeds on our website, my iGoogle home page, etc.?

The Aarhus Clearinghouse Resource Directory and News sections are syndicated using RSS, the most common syndication format. These feeds always show the latest content published by the Clearinghouse. Most content management systems now include simple modules for integrating RSS feeds into your website. Another simple way to add a feed to your website is to use RSS-to-Javascript.

Adding our RSS feeds to your iGoogle home page, MyYahoo, or any other personal portal, is simple. We have chosen a few of the most common personal portal systems and added a one-click tool for adding our feeds. You will find them in our Resource Directory and News sections. If you use a different personal home page, consult the Help guide for your chosen system.

For more information on RSS, consult Wikipedia.

5) How do you tabulate the list of "Top Resources" in the Resource Directory?

The list is a ranking of the resources that have received the most "clickthroughs" (times when a real site visitor, not a search engine robot, clicks a resource) among the group of resources as currently filtered.

6) How do I search for National Implementation Reports in the Clearinghouse?

Governments prepare National Implementation Reports for the Meetings of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention based on a set of questions agreed by the Parties. They are published as official UN documents in English, French and Russian. The 2005 reports appear in the Clearinghouse in a searchable, electronic database.

To access a country's implementation report, navigate to the National Reports page from the Home page and select the language, year of publication, country name and question or questions you wish to retrieve from the database. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the "Submit" button. The selected question(s) and response will appear.

You may select from all questions to see the full National Implementation Report or select a subset of the questions.

To select questions from more than one country, hold down the control key and click on the names of the desired countries.

Metadata (UN symbol, issuance date and original language) appear at the top of the report.

7) How do I search for a News item in the Clearinghouse?

The most recent News items are found on the Home page under "Convention News". The 10 most recent News items appear under "Latest Headlines" on the News page, where the items are organized chronologically. Or click on the year of publication to access all items appearing for that year.

To search for News items, enter a keyword in any Search window.