The UDM gives libraries a common representation for sending assets to each other, eliminating the need for every library to create mappings to all other libraries' data models. The UDM also identifies important characteristics for describing reusable assets, such as cost, certification, language, warranties, target environment, location (IsLocatedIn), author (WasCreatedBy), and contents (IsMadeOf). In addition, the BIDM subset of the UDM defines a data model that has formed the basis of the data model used by ASSET's (Asset Source for Software Engineering Technology) on-line asset catalog. The UDM also provides a term set, consisting of the UDM attributes, relationships, and attribute vocabularies, that libraries and people can use to associate their diverse terminology.