Post on 17-Jul-2015
MAPPING A NEW
INFORMATION LANDSCAPE
Library/Geological Survey collaboration in data stewardship and accessibility
CAROLYN RAUBERHARVEY THORLEIFSON
11/6/2012
Working Together
• The Survey is a unit of the University, with
a mandate to make geological information
available to its citizens
Using the institutional repository
• 40,000 pages of
reports, guidebooks,
bulletins, and over
600 maps
• Organized, freely
available for
download, and most
full-text searchable
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
Total Downloads of Minnesota Geological Survey Publications, 2011-2012
**Data point for June 2012 removed; site indexer was offline
Blueprint for success
• Three discovery tools
– Search by full text
(where available)
– Browse by category
– Search and browse
spatially
• Open access
Blueprint for success
• Three discovery tools
– Search by full text
(where available)
– Browse by category
– Search and browse
spatially
• Open access
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
2011 2012
Total Downloads per Dataset, 2011 and 2012
Gravity AeromagneticDatabase
Karst Database
Rock PropertiesDatabase
As of 9/30/2012
Re-envisioning what we have
• We think about our information assets in
terms of what separates them…
– Publications & archives
– Geological, geophysical, geochemical data
– Physical collections
Re-envisioning what we have
• …but we want to interact with them the
same way.
– Organized to facilitate discovery.
– Allow queries.
– Open access (as much as possible).
• Instead of making distinctions, let’s think of
everything as a database.
Big Vision for Everything
• Web services– Consistent outward
face
• Map interface– Crucial for spatial
information
– Allows for more robust searching
• Standardized– OGC-compliant?
– Open and interoperable
Things to consider
• Persistence?
• Update frequency?
– Notifying users
– …tracking users?
• Who are our users,
anyway?
• Available for
harvesting?
Preliminary audit
• Pilot audit of several databases
• Various points along the spectrum
– County Well Index (Online! Stable! Mapped!)
– Gravity database (Online! Mapped!)
– Seismic soundings database (Dark! No one
can access it!)
Long way to go
• Identified four different software programs
used to manipulate and interpret data
• Complications with users
– Mining companies don’t want us to know
they’re using our data
• Barriers to accessibility
– Some data lives in Microsoft Word… so much
for interoperability