Schedule
of Events
Tentative Meeting Schedule
(Note: This is still subject to change):
Sunday, November 2
Time |
Event |
Place |
| 8:00 a.m.-11:50 p.m. |
Geoscience Information/Communication Discipline
Oral Session (AESE/GSIS): Challenges in Geoscience Publishing;
Perspectives of Communicating Geoscience to Scientists and to
the General Public |
|
| 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. |
Geoscience Information/Communication Posters |
|
| 12:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m. |
GSIS Board Meeting |
|
| 4:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. |
GSA Presidential Address& Awards Ceremony |
|
| 6:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m. |
GSA Welcoming Party & Exhibit Hall Opening |
|
Monday, November 3
Time |
Event |
Place |
| 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. |
GSIS Topical Session T48:
Geoscience Information Horizons; Challenges, Choices, and Decisions |
|
| 2:00 p.m.- 4:30 p.m |
Collection Development Issues Forum |
|
| 5:30 pm.- 7:30 pm. |
GSA Alumni Night |
|
Tuesday, November 4
Time |
Event |
Place |
| 8:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. |
GeoRef/Digital Forum |
|
| 12:00 p.m.- 1:30 p.m. |
GSIS Luncheon & Awards |
|
| 1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. |
GSIS Business Meeting |
|
| 7:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. |
GSIS Reception (Sponsored by Elsevier) |
|
Wednesday, November 5
Time |
Event |
Place |
| 8:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. |
Preservation Forum |
|
| 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. |
Professional Issues Forum & Wrap-up |
|
Thursday, November 6
Time |
|
Place |
| 8:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. |
Part 1: Glacial Geology & Seismic Hazards
of the Puget Sound |
Ferry |
| 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. |
Part 2: Lunch (on your own) |
Pioneer Square |
| 1:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. |
Part 3: Seattle Underground Tour |
Downtown Seattle |
Other meetings of interest:
T33 Beyond Google: Strategies for Developing
Information-Literate Geoscience Students (Posters) (Geoscience
Educators) Tuesday, 11/4, 8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m..
T45I Geological and Geophysical Databases: What We Have and
What We Need. I. Tuesday, 11/4, 8:00-12:00.
T45II Geological and Geophysical Databases: What We Have and
What We Need.II Tuesday, 11/4, 1:30-5:30.
T47 Design & Development of XML-based, Discipline-Specific,
Geological Markup Languages, and Development of Applications.
Tuesday, 11/4, 8:00 a.m.-12:00.
T49 The National Geologic Map Database (Posters),
Monday, 11/3, 1:30-5:30.
Topical Session
48
Session Schedule
TIME |
TITLE |
SPEAKER |
| 8:00 AM |
Introductory Remarks |
L.E. Joseph |
| 8:15 AM |
Saving the Geology Library--A Civics
Lesson. |
C. J. Manson (Invited) |
| 8:30 AM |
Conference Proceedings in Geoscience
Journals: What's the Use? |
M. M. Noga |
| 8:45 AM |
Geoscience Monograph Series -- Are
They Worth the Cost or Are They a Great Value For Libraries? |
C. R. M. Derksen, M. M. Noga |
| 9:00 AM |
Choosing Vendors for Bibliographic
and Full-Text Science Databases in Academic Libraries: A Guideline
for Buying in a Consortia Environment. |
A. C. Fleming |
| 9:15 AM |
Book Reviews in the Earth and Atmospheric
Sciences Journal Literature. |
C. Laffoon, M. Fosmire |
| 9:30 AM |
Publishing Patterns in the Earth
System Science Department, a Non-Traditional Geoscience Program
at the University of California, Irvine. |
A. M. Love |
| 9:45 AM |
Information Labs: A New Approach
to Geoscience Information Literacy Instruction. |
M. Fosmire |
| 10:00 AM |
BREAK |
|
| 10:15 AM |
Geoscienceworld: A Multi-Society
Aggregation of Geoscience Electronic Journals. |
S. Mosher, R. R. Gries (Invited) |
| 10:30 AM |
Physical Libraries and Virtual Libraries:
What's Important for Geoscientists. |
S. Z. Hiller (Invited) |
| 10:45 AM |
Linking to Full Text (and Beyond)
With SFX. |
A. B. Twiss-Brooks |
| 11:00 AM |
Implementing the Open Archival Information
System (OAIS) Reference Model: NSIDC, A Case Study. |
T. L. Mullins, R. Duerr |
| 11:15 AM |
USGS Water Resources Investigation
Reports: A Case Study for Improving Access. |
P. B. Yocum |
| 11:30 AM |
Status of Bibliographic Control of
Pre-1900 Geoscience Literature. |
M. W. Scott |
| 11:45 AM |
Making the Past Come Alive: Bringing
Leverett & Taylor & Monograph 53 to the 21st Century.
|
D. K. Baclawski |
Abstracts
Saving the Geology Library--A
Civics Lesson. C. J. Manson (Invited)
The Washington state geological survey library
was formally established in 1935. Due to severe budget shortfalls,
that library was threatened with permanent closure in 2003. That it
survived shows that 'the system works'. How it survived may be a useful
example to other organizations facing similar problems. Preliminary
projections, released in December 2002, indicated that Washington
state government faced a $2.4 billion revenue shortfall. The legislature
would meet in January 2003, primarily to work on the budget for all
state programs. In advance of that, the Governor's proposed budget
was released in mid-December 2002. That budget opted to make up the
shortfall by cutting all but the most necessary state programs. Those
cuts included the Washington state geological survey library and all
our state survey public information functions. Both librarians would
lose their jobs, but what would become of the collection? Would the
materials be given to other libraries? Would they be boxed and stored
indefinitely? Would they simply be tossed? No one knew. We immediately
fought back. We contacted our external users in industry, academia,
and the public about our plight. We could not lobby the legislature
ourselves nor could we tell our supporters what to say. However, we
could and did provide our supporters with the information they requested
about our situation. We prepared and distributed fact sheets and surveys.
We encouraged our supporters to express their opinions to their legislators
and to spread the word. Their letters came in a torrent. We heard
that the letters were articulate, factual, intelligent, and much appreciated.
The cynics are wrong: the system does work. Legislators do read their
mail and they do take it to heart. The legislature did not fund raises
for teachers and they cut many other programs. But they restored $100,000
to our budget, specifically for the library. That $100,000 restored
only partial funding for us, so we scrambled to find the rest through
various federal grants and other funds and are confident we will succeed.
The library lives for at least two more years, when we'll probably
go through this all over again.
Conference Proceedings in Geoscience Journals:
What's the Use? M. M. Noga
Conference proceedings serve a role in communicating
current ideas, interim results, and completed studies to a broader
audience than just the conference registrants. They are published
as single volumes, parts of monographic series, on CD-ROMs, or on
the Web. In some cases, they are published within journals. The value
of these journal-published conference papers has been questioned,
because 1) they may be considered less valuable than regular journal
papers and 2) they increase the size of the journals and perhaps contribute
to cost increases. These proceedings get distributed to a wide audience,
but subscribers usually do not have a choice on whether they will
receive and thereby pay for them. This issue still has relevance with
the rise of electronic journal packages, because the price of the
packages is often dependent on the price of the constituent journals.
If conference proceedings are inflating journal prices, then they
are probably inflating journal package prices too.
If conference papers have less long-term value than journal articles,
then there should be a difference in their citation patterns. Eight
years ago a preliminary study found no significant difference between
the citation frequencies of conference papers and research articles
that were published during the same year in the same geoscience journals.
The study was limited because the data were slowly gathered through
CD-ROM searches. The current study examined a larger set of geoscience
journals and longer citation periods through searches of the Web of
Science. Citation frequencies of conference papers in monographic
proceedings were also collected. The results show whether conference
papers in journals are used to the same extent as research journal
articles or whether they fit expectations of lower use of proceedings
papers.
Geoscience Monograph Series -- Are They
Worth the Cost or Are They a Great Value For Libraries? C. R. M. Derksen,
M. M. Noga
Earth Sciences Libraries abound with monograph
series published by societies, research institutes, universities,
and government agencies. Some of those published by the societies,
for example, the Geological Society of America’s Special Paper
series, the Mineralogical Society of America’s Reviews in Mineralogy
and Geochemistry series, or the American Association of Petroleum
Geologists’ AAPG Memoir series, may take up a lot of shelf space
and are unpredictable in publication schedule and/or cost per volume.
This study focused on a selected number of series, all of which were
non-commercially published, broad in geographic scope, and established
monographic series. Several of the university-published series are
actually publishing venues for theses. Some, published by government
agencies, are acquired on deposit, as gifts, or at very low cost.
Others, such as the Geological Society’s Special Publication
series, have a more expensive price tag. Cost per year, use of the
volumes (as determined by circulation and in-house use records) and
citation rates were examined. Stanford University Libraries figures
were supplemented by data from MIT Libraries. The information collected
for the selected series was also contrasted with comparable data for
commercially published books purchased individually.
This examination of the cost and use data for the society monographic
series volumes and the other selected series indicates that, by and
large, they are well used, and worth the shelf space and purchase
price. Purchase of the same volumes on an as needed basis could be
more expensive.
Choosing Vendors for Bibliographic and
Full-Text Science Databases in Academic Libraries: A Guideline for
Buying in a Consortia Environment. A. C. Fleming
Many bibliographic databases such as GeoRef are
available through several commercial vendors. Quite often academic
libraries form consortia agreements to obtain the best price and licensing
options on database purchases. This in turn creates a “one package
fits all” purchasing environment with cost becoming the controlling
factor. However, pedagogical aspects, functionality, currency and
most importantly primary audience also need to be considered. This
presentation will establish a check list of criteria for database
vendor selection and using GeoRef as an example, compare some of the
major bibliographic vendors.
Book Reviews in the Earth and Atmospheric
Sciences Journal Literature. C. Laffoon, M. Fosmire
As library budgets continue to lag behind increases
in the cost of scholarly information in the geosciences, it becomes
increasingly important for librarians to make good choices in collection
development. One way to get more information about books to make an
informed acquisition decision, is through reading substantial, timely
reviews. Whereas the major book review indexes only cover geoscience
titles sporadically, the authors decided to undertake a full study
of the literature in earth and atmospheric sciences to find out which
journals contain book reviews, and how old the books are that are
reviewed. This study is modeled after the article, “Locating
Book Reviews in Agriculture and the Life Sciences,” by Kathleen
Clark and Brent Mai, and incorporates Lura Joseph’s, “Sources
of Book Reviews in the Geosciences” (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/gexold/bookreviews.html),
as well as several other resources. This study examines 263 earth
and atmospheric sciences journal titles which include book reviews.
Of these, 247 are primarily in earth sciences, with the remaining
16 in atmospheric sciences. For this study, journal issues published
in 2002 are examined. The reviews average one page in length and are
all signed by the reviewer.
Publishing Patterns in the Earth System
Science Department, a Non-Traditional Geoscience Program at the University
of California, Irvine. A. M. Love
The analysis of the publication patterns of the
UCI Earth System Science faculty researchers will compare publications
and research between UCI and more traditional geology departments.
Additionally, this analysis will provide insights into the research
habits and publication patterns of the Earth System Science (ESS)
faculty. The information presented will exemplify specialized collection
development experiences in a university library setting as well as
highlight current changes in information usage in the geosciences.
These changes not only have an impact on library users, but also those
responsible for collection development in support of research. The
ESS instruction and departmental research emphasis changes are a dynamic
reflection of interests in current issues and global environmental
concerns--not static reflections of standard physical science programs.
The University of California, Irvine (UCI) was founded in 1965. In
1989-90, the School of Physical Sciences examined the possibility
of establishing a geosciences program where, up until this time, there
had been no geology program included in the UCI campus science curriculum.
The Earth System Science Department has its roots in the atmospheric
chemistry research of F. Sherwood Rowland's laboratory group in the
Department of Chemistry. The focus of the proposed geosciences program
was nontraditional and did not emphasize the usual "rock"
geology. In 1990 Ralph Cicerone, a specialist in atmospheric chemistry
and former director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research's
Atmospheric Chemistry Division, joined the UCI faculty. With Dr. Cicerone
came a change in the focus for the departmental curriculum; it took
on the "global change agenda," and the founding faculty
members were hired in the atmospheric sciences, geochemistry and oceanography.
Information Labs: A New Approach to Geoscience
Information Literacy Instruction. M. Fosmire
As higher education undergoes a transformation
from a lecture-dominated enterprise to one that encourages active
engagement by the students with the curriculum, librarians have a
new avenue for inserting themselves into the educational mission of
the university. At Purdue University, the libraries have been successful
integrating problem-based learning activities into curricula in several
departments. One of the most successful ventures at Purdue has been
in the Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, where, in addition to our regular
instructional presence, we have created ‘information labs’
in two courses so far, including the first year survey course taken
by all EAS majors. The information lab takes the place of a regular
lab in those classes, and involves the students tackling a research
project, solving it, and writing up the results in some format and
presenting those results to the rest of the class. The lab uses a
problem-based learning methodology, where students take ownership
of a problem or situation, determine what their learning issues are,
and then go about resolving those learning issues to solve their problem.
The instructor acts as a guide, answering questions and guiding students
through the process of problem solving, rather than standing up front
and demonstrating databases for the students. The students work in
small groups to facilitate peer learning as well, which has been shown
to be a preferred method for students to learn. Since the information
lab takes the students through all the steps in the problem-solving
process, it naturally addresses each of the ACRL information literacy
competencies, providing a well-rounded introduction to information
literacy to the students. This paper describes the two information
labs that have been created for the geosciences, one in the survey
course, and one in mineralogy. From the creation of subject-faculty/librarian
partnerships, to the actual content of the labs, to an evaluation
of the effectiveness of the instruction, the process of implementing
the information labs will be discussed. Tips for creating these types
of information instruction experiences will also be given
Geoscienceworld: A Multi-Society Aggregation
of Geoscience Electronic Journals. S. Mosher, R. R. Gries (Invited)
GeoScienceWorld is a multi-society aggregation
of geoscience electronic journals currently under development by seven
societies: AAPG, AGI, GSA, GSL, MSA, SEG, SEPM. The purpose is to
continue the collective mission of disseminating scientific research
and information as well as to preserve past scientific literature.
The aggregation will consist of peer-reviewed, high quality, regularly
appearing, internationally based, earth and space science journals
that are published by non-profit professional societies and university
presses. Initially GeoScienceWorld will focus on journals published
in English, but will later incorporate other languages for worldwide
coverage. The goal is to have the aggregation ready to launch during
2004.
The initial launch will feature a Millennium Collection, which will
consist of a full-text, online-accessible aggregation of geoscience
journals issued from January 2000 forward. Features will include searching
of full-text and figure captions for all journals in the aggregation,
and of all geoscience literature through GeoRef, with linking between
reference and cited articles through CrossRef. Other expected features
include HTML and PDF (searchable) full text, searches using a controlled
vocabulary, the ability to limit searches to subsets, clear identification
of journals and societies, public access to all abstracts, and links
to enhanced data sets. The intent is to develop a literature access
service that links the Millennium Collection to searchable electronic
back issues (pre-2000) of as many society journals as possible. Although
the initial focus is on journals, the goal is to include or be linked
to non-journal material such as digital datasets, books, maps, and
other geoscience literature in the future
An electronic journal aggregation should result in a greater integration
and exposure of earth science disciplines and an increase in the value
and accessibility of scientific society journals to the greater geoscience
community, including developing countries. GeoScienceWorld may have
the most powerful impact on geosciences in many decades.
Physical Libraries and Virtual Libraries:
What's Important for Geoscientists. S. Z. Hiller (Invited)
The library and information environments have
changed substantially during the past ten years. The development of
the World Wide Web and subsequent rapid growth of scholarly information
and other data, available anytime or anyplace through the internet,
have exerted a profound impact on the way geoscientists find and use
the information resources needed for research and teaching. This presentation
draws upon the extensive survey and user assessment data accumulated
at the University of Washington since 1992. Large scale survey information
provides sufficient granularity to compare how geoscientists and scientists
in other areas find information and use libraries.
Linking to Full Text (and Beyond) With
SFX. A. B. Twiss-Brooks
The University of Chicago Library is committed
to providing its academic research and education community with a
diverse collection of print and, increasingly, electronic resources.
The electronic collections are remarkable not only for the amount
of information available (more than 4,000 electronic journals in the
sciences alone), but also for the astounding (and confusing) variety
of publisher search interfaces, schemes for content organization,
and navigational routes to the content. In an effort to provide users
with a more intuitive and consistent way to identify means to retrieve
content, regardless of format or source, the Library implemented an
SFX server solution. SFX (from ExLibris)
is a linking technology based on the OpenURL protocol (currently under
development as a NISO standard) for creating customized links among
diverse information products. The University of Chicago Library implementation
of SFX to provide better management of electronic resources and improved
service to the scholarly community is described. The
Library defined its electronic collection, and constructed rules to
guide SFX in creating context-sensitive links. These customized, context-sensitive
links use web-transportable packages of metadata to connect users
to resources and services. Links to resources are dynamically generated
to provide information about all available online copies. In addition,
SFX services have been configured to include links to online full
text, as well as searches of the University of Chicago Library’s
rich print collections and additional services, including automated
interlibrary loan request generation. Recent
and future developments described include an OpenURL generator/DOI
resolver tool, a dynamically generated comprehensive online journal
A to Z list, and additional SFX services.
Implementing the Open Archival Information
System (OAIS) Reference Model: NSIDC, A Case Study. T. L. Mullins,
R. Duerr
Geoscience data sets are the foundation of education
and basic and applied research in the geosciences. Their long-term
continuity and viability are of great importance to all aspects of
society. Open access to data allows researchers to replicate research
results and provides greater understanding of the Earth system. With
the advent of new sources of remote sensing data and the technical
capability of processing large volumes of data, new models for data
management, access and archival are needed for archives, libraries
and cultural heritage institutions to properly manage geoscience data
sets. The Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model,
a recommendation by the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems,
was developed in part to define an ISO standard for the long-term
preservation of digital information. The National Snow and Ice Data
Center (NSIDC), a national data archive with expertise in cryospheric
research, is adopting the OAIS reference model because it meets the
goals we have set out in our mission statement “to excel in
managing data and disseminating information in order to advance understanding
of the Earth system”.
NSIDC started the process of adopting this model for data stewardship
in 2002. At that time a Data Management Policies document was drafted
and a Metadata Database project was initiated to unite guardianship
efforts across programs and with NSIDC data providers and users. This
paper will briefly examine the OAIS model and then discuss the work
that NSIDC is doing to implement it. Specific data sets in different
stages of acceptance, ingest and archival will be used to illustrate
fundamental concepts . Metadata and data format standards, system
architecture and documentation will be reviewed.
USGS Water Resources Investigation Reports:
A Case Study for Improving Access. P. B. Yocum
Since 1973 the USGS has published over 4,000
reports in the series, Water Resources Investigation Reports. Copies
of the studies, dealing with water in localities throughout the United
States, have been deposited in libraries for use by academic researchers
and the general public. From the outset the University of Michigan
Library sought to collect the reports comprehensively. Prior to the
digital era limited resources caused the library to catalog only the
series name and to record holdings only by the piece number. With
rare exceptions, catalog entries were not made for author, title,
or subject for individual pieces. As more reports arrived, management
of the collection became more difficult and access to the individual
pieces became more problematic. By the late 1990's attempts by patrons
to consult items in the series often required extensive staff help
for what should have been a straightforward, self-service function.
In late Spring 2000 the Shapiro Science Library embarked on a project
to improve the situation. The project proceeded in several phases
and with multiple goals. The most important of these were achieved
by Spring 2003. Among them was providing a separate catalog record
for each WRIR number in the U of M collection, thus making each searchable
by author, title, subject and keyword from anywhere in the world.
Improved bibliographic access also makes items more available for
use via interlibrary loan. This paper discusses the need for the project,
the challenges encountered, and the solutions adopted. It will be
of special interest to institutions considering improvements to their
collections of WRIR or other government publications in series.
Status of Bibliographic Control of Pre-1900
Geoscience Literature. M. W. Scott
There are several print bibliographies that cover
the literature before 1900. The Bibliography of North American Geology
(1785-1948) was incorporated into GeoRef as a special project. But
other non North American bibliographies, for example, Repertorium
commentationum a societatibus litterariis editarum, 1665-1800; The
Royal Society (Great Britain), Catalogue of scientific papers 1800-1900;
Agassiz, Louis, Bibliographia zoologiae et geologiae, 1848; Taschenbuch
fur die gesammte Mineralogie, 1807-1829; Neues Jahrbuch fur Mineralogie,
Geologie and Palaontologie, 1830-1900; Bibliographia geologica: 1896-1906;
and Annuaire geologique universel : revue de geologie & paleontology,
1885-1896 were not entered into GeoRef. Should they be included? Is
coverage of major geological topics and/or journals missing from GeoRef?
How accessible is the literature from this time period? As libraries
move older material to remote storage, do we have the tools to find
and recall this material, particularly the journal literature? The
mathematicians are creating Electronic Research Archive for Mathematics,
ERAM, a digital archive of the most important mathematical publications
of the period 1868-1942 and a database based on the "Jahrbuch
über die Fortschritte der Mathematik." Is a similar project
feasible for the geosciences?
Making the Past Come Alive: Bringing
Leverett & Taylor & Monograph 53 to the 21st Century. D. K.
Baclawski
Among the great challenges of current geoscience
information are the questions of deciding what information will be
digitally preserved, in what format, and what types of access can
be made available.
In 1999, the Geology Library at Michigan State University received
a collection of letters and reports written by Frank Leverett and
Frank Taylor. Dating between 1890 and 1937, the collection includes
correspondence between Leverett and Taylor, as well as letters written
by other glaciologists. The collection also includes many of Taylor's
handwritten reports. In addition to this very unique resource, the
Geology Library has discovered a small group of detailed field maps
for various quadrangles in Michigan that relate directly to some of
the areas mapped by Leverett. Since 2000, the Geology Library has
also acquired copies of Leverett's field notebooks for Michigan and
a series of paintings that show the recession of the glaciers across
Michigan.
In addition to preserving this unique but disparate group of collections,
it is the objective of the Geology Library to explore ways to make
these collections accessible to researchers. The ultimate goal would
be a database that would allow glaciologists and geomorphologists
access to the information collected by Leverett & Taylor in the
production of Monograph 53. Ideally the theoretical design of such
a database would be more than archival in nature. It should permit
correlated access to all parts of the information base by location
(a multi-tier field location structure), by date, and by name of glacial
feature.
