Search results | Digital Commons of Moss Landing Marine Laboratories

Title: Receptivity to library involvement in scientific data curation: A case study at the University of Colorado Boulder
Description: Increasingly libraries are expected to play a role in scientific data curation initiatives, i.e., “the management and preservation of digital data over the long-term.” This case study offers a novel approach for identifying researchers who are receptive toward library involvement in data curation. The authors interviewed researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder and, after analysis, created eight design “personas.” Each persona represents an aggregation of researcher attributes and can be used to target strategic relationships for nascent or emerging data management initiatives. These personas are applicable to any academic library seeking to provide data curation support., published
Author: Lage, Losoff, Maness

Title: Cataloging digital geospatial data: Current standards and rogue cataloging practices
Description: The availability and use of electronic cartographic resources is growing rapidly and has affected all aspects of map librarianship: acquisitions, reference and information services, and cataloging. Map librarians are questioning current practices, juggling priorities, shifting focus, and changing procedures as electronic cartographic materials become a larger part of their map collections. Cataloging practices are no exception to this transformation. This paper presents a preliminary examination of current cataloging rules, guidelines, and practices for electronic cartographic material, focusing on access points.
Author: Lage

Title: Enhanced Library Collection Access through GIS: Historic Colorado Aerial Photographs
Description: This case study presents the use of GIS in a map library to create an enhanced index for a collection of historical aerial photographs of Colorado. The University of Colorado at Boulder’s Jerry Crail Johnson Earth Sciences and Map Library scanned and indexed 1700 aerial photographs taken from 1938- 1947. Library staff used ArcView 3.2 and ArcGIS 8.1 to plot the center points of each photograph and enhanced the georeferencing with a detailed attribute table. The project Web site provides access to the photographs and the spatial data captured in the attribute table through a map search and a keyword search.
Author: Lage, Cronin, Long

Title: The flight plan of a digital initiatives project, part 2: Usability testing in the context of user-centered design
Description: Purpose – To provide the results of research to evaluate the usability of a University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries digital initiatives project that provides online access to historical Aerial Photographs of Colorado. Design/methodology/approach – This paper describes usability testing conducted as a part of a user‐centered redesign. The three stages of the evaluation – a requirements analysis, a heuristic evaluation, and user testing – are explained and the findings are discussed. Findings – The usability testing revealed the needs of the project's target user group and identified issues with the interface that will be addressed in its redesign. It has also contributed to the larger understanding of how researchers use digital Aerial Photographs and their preferred methods of access and desired functionalities. Practical implications – Results from the study will be used to guide the redesign of the Aerial Photographs of Colorado digital library and can be generalized to add to a broader understanding of the usability requirements for a digital library of geospatial materials. Libraries providing a digital collection of geospatial materials may use these findings to inform design decisions. Originality/value – Much research has been done on the use and evaluation of digital libraries, but few articles have reported on usability studies of online collections of cartographic materials similar in structure to Aerial Photographs of Colorado. It is hoped that these findings will be instructive to librarians designing and evaluating similar digital libraries.
Author: Long, Lage, Cronin

Title: The flight plan of a digital initiatives project: Providing remote access to aerial photographs of Colorado
Description: Purpose – To present a case study of a digital initiative for cartographic materials in order to provide a reference for other institutions embarking on similar projects. Design/methodology/approach – Describes the technical and practical details of the processes involved in georeferencing and providing online access to scanned aerial photographs. Findings – In the short time that the site has been live, the Map Library has already seen a marked increase in reference queries from both local and national users. Practical implications – From a practical standpoint, the project would not have been a success without collaboration between map, metadata, and systems librarians. Originality/value – To date, little has been published about digital initiatives projects providing online access to historical aerial photographs, a distinct and complex subset of cartographic materials. It is hoped that this case study will allow other institutions to learn from the approach and experience of the University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries.
Author: Cronin, Lage, Long

Title: Zoom! Remote sensing imagery in the geosciences: Remote sensing imagery in the geosciences
Description: The first International Polar Year took place in 1882 and 1883, before the rise in greenhouse gas pollution associated with global climate change. Carl Weyprecht, an Austrian scientist-explorer who was the inspiration behind the IPY, had forward thinking ideas about how to most profitably conduct polar research. In his Fundamental Principals of Scientific Arctic Investigation he proposed fielding coordinated expeditions that would collect comparable synoptic observations necessary to study very large-scale phenomena such as meteorology, geomagnetism and the aurora. The field program he suggested was successfully implemented but the hard-won synoptic observations were never fully analyzed. Long delays in the initial publication of the data and the lack of a central office tasked with coordinating data synthesis contributed to this disappointing result. The fourth IPY began in March, 2007. Climate change, especially in the Arctic, adds urgency to the objective of taking a “snapshot” of current conditions using synoptic observations. And making observations accessible to everyone is proper not only because the public is aware and interested, but because to do so would help ensure that exceeding valuable data is used to its fullest potential. Now IPY research involves over 50,000 participants from 63 nations. How much of this research will be accessible in the future? What can be done to promote the flow and preservation of information? Are there lessons in data management from the first IPY than can be applied here? Now, web services, distributed data archives and metadata standards are being employed to keep track of and work with data from ‘virtual observatories': confederations of projects and instrumentation like the National Science Foundation's Arctic Observing Network. Metadata can insure that future generations will be able to find the data. So many types of data from so many sources is driving a move to self-describing data formats. In an age where most data are ‘born digital' we still need to go back and preserve old analog data so that it can be used to investigate phenomena such as the Earth's climate that vary on timescales longer than the digital era.
Author: Lage

Title: Access to Online Historical Aerial Photography Collections: Past Practice, Present State, and Future Opportunities
Description: The authors review how access to historical aerial photograph collections has evolved in response to technological developments and addresses areas for further advancement, with a particular emphasis on developing, preserving, and sustaining online collections. The authors focus specifically on the areas of metadata, the Semantic Web and linked data, and sustainability through collaboration. The article includes brief case studies, highlighting various projects involving the aerial photography collections at the University of Minnesota. The conclusion asserts the critical role played by geographic information librarians in effectively carrying out the strategies described in the article as they relate to the long-term sustainability of digital geospatial collections.
Author: McAuliffe, Lage, Mattke