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A LOOMING CRISIS: MAINTAINING ACCESS TO ELECTRONIC RESEARCH PRODUCTS

A LOOMING CRISIS: MAINTAINING ACCESS TO ELECTRONIC RESEARCH PRODUCTS. Daphne Fautin University of Kansas Gail Kampmeier Illinois Natural History Survey. Electronic PEET Products. Project web pages Images Literature - publications, reports, field journals

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A LOOMING CRISIS: MAINTAINING ACCESS TO ELECTRONIC RESEARCH PRODUCTS

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  1. A LOOMING CRISIS: MAINTAINING ACCESS TO ELECTRONIC RESEARCH PRODUCTS Daphne Fautin University of Kansas Gail Kampmeier Illinois Natural History Survey

  2. Electronic PEET Products • Project web pages • Images • Literature - publications, reports, field journals • Gene sequences and other molecular data • Character matrices & keys • Databases - data & structure

  3. What Happens… • When project funding ceases • When project members disperse • When PIs retire, change research topics, move, or … Who will champion access to the electronic resources produced by PEETs, AToLs, BSIs, PBIs, …?

  4. Fate of Our Electronic Resources Who should be responsible? • Institutions originally receiving project funding? • Funding agencies? • Those creating the resources? • Professional societies?

  5. Issues • Who owns the products? (not an issue only for electronic media) • How can the products continue to be served? • How should the products best be preserved?

  6. This is a global issue Among efforts to grapple with it is the 2005 National Science Board Report 05-40 www.nsf.gov/pubs/2005/nsb0540 (NPR this morning on electronic art and art museums)

  7. Issues • Who owns the products? (not an issue only for electronic media) • How can the products continue to be served? • How should the products best be preserved?

  8. Archiving • LIBRARIES have historically been the repository of scholarly output (= publications) • MUSEUMS have been custodians of specimens • Some other physical objects end up in TRADITIONAL ARCHIVES

  9. Archiving • WHICH products should be preserved • HOW should they be preserved • WHERE should they be preserved Locally, supercomputers, electronic archives, etc. Metadata: retrieval requires excellent documentation Software versions: a practical challenge, not a technical one (remember Gene Stoermer!)

  10. Electronic PEET Products • Project web pages • Images • Literature - publications, reports, field journals • Gene sequences and other molecular data • Character matrices & keys • Databases - data & structure

  11. Internet Archive

  12. Mr. Peabody’s WayBack Machine…

  13. Caveats: Pages Not Archived • Anything requiring interaction with the server • Forms, database-generated content • Javascript not resolving in true URLs • Server-side image maps • Pages with robot exclusion headers (robots.txt) • Orphan pages (no links into) • Unknown sites

  14. Electronic PEET Products • Project web pages • Images • Literature - publications, reports, field journals • Gene sequences and other molecular data • Character matrices & keys • Databases - data & structure

  15. Images • Scanned • Resolution • Format standard: TIF? • Produced digitally • Format evolution of production software if not saved as flat TIF

  16. Electronic PEET Products • Project web pages • Images • Literature - publications, reports, field journals • Gene sequences and other molecular data • Character matrices & keys • Databases - data & structure

  17. Literature, Reports, Field Journals... • Issues similar to images • Format evolution • Media migration • Metadata for retrieval • OCR for finding individual items • Solutions are library-like, requiring recurring infusions of • $$$ • Personnel • Migrate as formats evolve, versions change • Time • Digital lifetime determination

  18. Literature, Reports, Field Journals...

  19. Electronic PEET Products • Project web pages • Images • Literature - publications, reports, field journals • Gene sequences and other molecular data • Character matrices & keys • Databases - data & structure

  20. A central archive – a library! Maintained by a Federal agency Gene sequences and other molecular data

  21. Electronic PEET Products • Project web pages • Images • Literature - publications, reports, field journals • Gene sequences • Character matrices & keys • Databases - data & structure

  22. Character Matrices & Keys • DELTA/INTKEY (example of standard in danger of format evolution) • Lucid (now in Version 3.4) • MacClade • PAUP • Hennig86 • MorphoBank • Others…

  23. Relational Databases: Content & Structure • Archiving • Metadata essential for discovery • Convert to flat files • Software-independent format (e.g. comma delimited) • Lose relational structure – but relationships can be coded

  24. Relational Databases: Content & Structure • Continued service • Version changes • High maintenance (some require professional DBA) • One size generally does not fit all – makes it difficult to pass on • Maintain also “front end” (required for queries) • scripting language: e.g. ColdFusion, PHP

  25. TO MAINTAIN ACCESS TO ELECTRONIC RESEARCH PRODUCTS a SILVER BULLETorSILVER BUCKSHOT? Concentration of resources vs. discovery of new methods by diversification

  26. Demonstrate value / usefulness Hits / citations Can be problematic for taxonomy / systematics Become part of large entity

  27. the data portal for and legacy of www.gbif.org (currently the third-largest data provider with nearly 10 million records) www.iobis.org the main provider of marine data to

  28. LIBRARIES have been custodians of scholarly knowledge A distributed resource PORTAL CONTRIBUTORS Maintaining functionality OBIS GBIF FishBase Consortium Individuals Institutions

  29. DIGITAL LIBRARIES

  30. Develop a clear technical and financial strategy; create policy for key issues consistent with the technical and financial strategy. The Foundation should actively engage with the community to ensure that community policies and priorities are established and then updated in a timely way. www.nsf.gov/pubs/2005/nsb0540

  31. Recurring Challenges • $$$ • Personnel • Time • Format evolution / back compatibility • Metadata – complete, appropriate (controlled vocabulary) • Digital lifetime - determining what, if anything, should be truly discarded

  32. IT’S UP TO US

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