===============
Target audience
===============
Who is the target audience of the ocdb package? Is it interesting for me?
The ocdb package addresses all scientists and people in general interested in **scattering and absorption of photons** in the VUV/EUV/X-ray region, in particular (potential) users of the data contained in the `Optical Constants Database (OCDB) `_ provided by the German National Metrology Institute, the `Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, PTB `_.
In contrast to other packages and data sources, the OCDB (and hence the ocdb Python package) provides not only optical constants, but uncertainties for these values as well. As such, it **does not compete** with other data sources (*e.g.*, the `CXRO database `_) and Python packages (*e.g.*, `periodictable `_), **but supplements and extends** the data available from there.
Besides that, it provides programmatic access to both, data and metadata, in a way similar to the periodictable Python package. For further details and a first glimpse of the user interface, have a look at the :doc:`use cases ` section.