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What is an Information Catalog (or Catalogue) ?
An Information Catalog is a common Repository for all data and information related to Enteprise Data Management.

As a result, it can play a very important role in Data Integration.

The design will usually reflect the Project and the culture wihtint the organisation and change from time-to-time.

Initial format will often include Word documents and Spreadsheets, and these might migrate to a Database..

Therefore a flexible approach is required, which will usually be based on Extendable Tables.

The contents will include Applications, Databases, Details of People, Roles and Repsonsibilities,
Mapping Specigications for Data Integration and so on

 It will usually be published over the corporate Intranet with clearly-defined privileges for
who can create, update, access and provide feedback on the content.

n Information Catalogue can also be called a Data Dictionary or an Information Repository.
Wikipedia has an entry for a Data Dictionary that is worth checking out.

Wikipedia also has an entry for Information Repository which describes something different.

An Information Catalogue can be used to record every activity and decision of importance relating to Data Integration at each Stage.
It can play a role from the beginning, by recording Data Owners and Data Sources.
Then during the Data Integration Stage, it can record details of Tables, Fields, Rules for Validation, Mapping and Translation.
In the Reporting Stage, it can be used to record definitions of Report Templates and specific variations of the Templates for specific Projects.

In the Data Governance Stage, it can be used to record decisions and agreements reached in critical aspects of Data Management.

The best use of the Information is to be deployed over an Intranet and/or in the Clouds so that individuals throughout an organization
can share the Information, comment on issues and so on.

Why is this Stage important ?
It provides a single point of access to details of all progress, objectives, milestones and so on.
It contains the details necessary to support Data Lineage by tracking each data item from origin to destination.

How do we get started ?
Step 1. Agree the format for the initial Information Catalogue.
For example, start with Spreadsheet, migrate to Access then online Database and finally �In the Clouds�.
Step 2. Agree initial content and update procedures.
Step 3. Agree Publish and Subscribe procedures.
Step 4. Identify the individuals responsible for data gathering and dissemination.

An excellent way to help you get started by clarifying your requirments is to evaluate some commercial products.
A number of products are available, and we have listed some here alphabetically :-
ASG Rochade ASG describe this as "The world's leading Metadata Repository"
Computer Associates Repository for Distributed Systems
IBM Repository
IBM SOA Repository
Oracle Enterprise Repository