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

Optimism!

…plus planning and work.