Geoscience Data and Collections National Resources in Peril (2002) / Chapter Skim
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4 Managing Geoscience Data and Collections: Challenges and Practices
4 Managing Geoscience Data and Collections: Challenges and Practices
Pages 57-69
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From page 57... ...
For example, exposure-related deterioration of the identification tags on hard-rock mineral samples, stored in 1990, outdoors under tarpaulins for several years at the Alaska Geological Survey, rendered the cores useless (committee survey response, 2001~. All data must be protected from the elements, although conventionally drilled cores and cuttings can be stored under less rigorous conditions than, for example, magnetic media, deep sea cores, paleontologic samples, or ice cores that require temperature and humidity controls.
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From page 58... ...
While the commercial value of fossil specimens, gems, and meteorites requires that they be protected from theft, all collections deserve protection from loss from other agents of destruction, such as vandalism, weather, insects, mold, and even mishandling by staff and clients. Examples of losses of geoscience data held by state geological surveys extends to earthquake (Alaska)
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From page 59... ...
The facilities mentioned above are in the minority. Most repositories the committee surveyed (Appendix B)
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From page 60... ...
Curation involves dedicated and skilled people. Salaries and wages for collections staff are among the largest expense items for most facilities.2 Consequently, most facili2For example, based on committee survey responses, salaries take up the following percentages of total costs: 30 percent at USGS Core Research Center, 49 percent at Iowa Geological Survey, 25 percent at Denver Earth Resources Library.
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From page 61... ...
Users needing more intensive processing services must be referred to outside services. Collections staff at state geological surveys usually range from one to two full-time employees, with additional parttime help (committee survey responses, 2001~.
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From page 62... ...
Data holdings at the National Geophysical Data Center's Marine Geology and Geophysics Division require 4.5 full-time employees to manage and maintain the marine geophysical databases (see Sidebar 4-2~. Where digital records exist for incoming data, as is often the case at the NGDC, they are reproduced and held as
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From page 63... ...
Uncataloged materials are almost impossible to use or loan, and most collections facilities have a backlog of uncataloged materials.3 At the Smithsonian Institution, priority for cataloging depends on the commercial value of the specimens, the number of specimens acquired per year, and the size of backlog remaining from years in which large USGS or NASA transfers were accepted (committee survey response, 2001~. This is especially true where gems, meteorites, or unusual and rare fossils are involved.
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From page 64... ...
Sidebar 4-4 describes the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) , a government agency that, since 1996, has provided funding on a competitive basis for improving access to information at museums and libraries.
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From page 65... ...
At the Smithsonian, as at all other museums, almost no specimens are accompanied by digital data when they arrive (committee survey response, 2001~. Specimen data nearly always arrive as donor-generated labels, scientific publications, and maps that accompany the samples.
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From page 66... ...
In the Smithsonian, many digital data reside on main-frame computers. Although such data are not in immediate danger of loss or damage, no transcription program is underway, consequently they remain completely inaccessible even to institution staff (committee survey response, 2001~.
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From page 67... ...
For example, staff in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has 40 district offices nationwide, have been largely unsuccessful in obtaining funds to publish catalogs of their holdings, leaving their data and collections accessible to the public only with great difficulty (committee survey response, 2001~.
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From page 68... ...
Data Resources Library geoinformatics systems provide geoscience data over the Internet. Other state geological surveys that have sophisticated data retrieval capabilities over the Internet include Iowa (GEOSAM online database; Iowa Department of Natural Resources, 2002)
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From page 69... ...
The current extent of cataloging in the United States is limited, however, and is the single greatest inhibitor of effective geoscience data and collections use. The backlog of cataloging in many institutions constitutes a significant burden in itself, and overloaded staff would benefit from digital submission of information about newly acquired geoscience data and collections.
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