Ag Data CommonsA new USDA catalog and repository for

agricultural research data

Credit: Phenocam USDA-ARS Hawbecker Farm, PA

Cynthia Parr @cydparrNational Agricultural LibraryUSAIN 2016 25 April 2016

Knowledge Services Division @ NAL• Established November 2012 • Data management support to USDA and its

scientific research communities• Making data discoverable, accessible, and re-

usable• Increasing transparency and return on investment

6 program staff: Biology, engineering, life cycle assessment, bioinformatics, geo-informatics, general informatics, and library sciences

2 technical staff: Java and Drupal5 research fellows: Digital curation, bioinformatics,

and computer science Contract support (7)

Knowledge Services @ NALIn support of scientific research activities and the Open Data Initiative, NAL provides:

1. data repository and workspace services

2. value-added curation services for data discoverability, access, and re-use

3. data management planning and policy

Data Repository and Workspace Services

NAL provides repository infrastructure and data management services at the archiving and preservation stage of the research data life cycle:

• Data acquisition• Single user and community curation• Metadata editing• Data publishing• User-centered interface design• Data visualization• User testing• Automated and semi-automated QA/QC

Value-added Data Curation Services

• Subject matter and informatics expertise add value to curation process• Improved ease of participation for researchers• QA/QC capability to facilitate data re-use

• QA/QC and editorial services• Data fidelity• Metadata completeness and consistency

• Data archiving and preservation• Discovery and search tools

Drivers for Ag Data Commons

PubAg.nal.usda.gov already existed

7

8

Identifiable/Accessible

Understandable

Machine Readable

Reusable/Reproducible

Open Science

A Journey Toward Research Support

ResearchSupport

Mandate Compliance

AG DATA COMMONSSearch &

Knowledge Discovery

Thesaurus &Indexing

Ag Data CommonsRepository

Organization & Curation

Grant Management

Systems

INGESTION DISSEMINATION

PubAg

DatasetSubmission

Analytics & Tools

Data.govAg Data

Commons Catalog

LegendBuildingAdaptingExisting

Distributed Repositories

Forest ServiceGeospatial

StatusPrototype FY 2015• DKAN open source• Drupal modules for basic

CMS functions • Feeds Data.gov• Basic metadata already

supported

Pilot FY 2016• ~35 non-NAL users• Almost 200 datasets (104

harvested)• Links to PubAg • Digital Object Identifiers• Metadata for compliance

checking and re-use• Support for program

collections• Policies and

documentation

https://data.nal.usda.gov/

Launched October

2015

Now

15

Metadata + data package

DOILinksThesaurus tags

Idiosyncratic data dictionary

Search, services, compliance

Structured methods metadata

Shared data dictionary

Semantic data dictionary

Assist application launch

Find related data

Integrate/link related data

Three yearsFive years

What does this mean for you?

• Provide feedback to us• Answer reference questions• Refer researchers looking to submit• Connect institutional or domain

repositories

Acknowledgements

Cynthia.Parr@ars.usda.gov

Susan McCarthy, Ursula Pieper, Erin Antognoli, Jon Sears, Qing Qu, Jeff Campbell

UMD: Kerry Huller, Adam Kriesberg, Meghna SarinFormer: Jocelyn McNamara, Melissa Lohrey, Don

Gourley, Jaylen NathwaniGovDelivery, Angry Cactus team

See Poster #2 and Poster #8 for more.