forwarded from geonet - warning! long email
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: CUAC Annual Meeting Minutes - May 4-5, 2006
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 12:05:43 -0500
From: Clara McLeod <[log in to unmask]> and geonet
To: maps-l
*Cartographic Users Advisory Council (CUAC)*
*2006 Annual Agencies Meeting*
*May 4^th -5th, 2006 *
*George Washington Carver Center/USDA*
*Beltsville**, Maryland***
* *
*CUAC Members:*
*Joe Aufmuth, University of Florida, MAGERT*
*Michael Fry, University of Maryland, WAML*
*Katie Lage, University of Colorado at Boulder, WAML*
*Mary McInroy, University of Iowa, GODORT*
*Clara P. McLeod, Washington University, GSIS*
*Bruce Obenhaus, Virginia Tech, SLA Social Science Division, G&M *
*Anita Oser, SLA, Social Science Division, G&M *
*Daniel T. Seldin, Indiana University, NACIS*
*Joy Suh, George Mason University, GODORT*
*Thelma Thompson, University of New Hampshire, NEMO*
*Linda Zellmer, Indiana University, GSIS*
* *
* *
*Agency Presenters:*
* *
*Christine Clarke, *introductory remarks
*George Rohaley, *National Remote Sensing Leader, *USDA-NRCS *
*Susan J. DeLost, *Program Manager, Geospatial Services*, USDA Forest
Service *
*Dr. Brett L. Abrams, *Electronic Records Archivist (*NARA*) and Chair
of the Historical Data Working Group/*FGDC *
*Bob Bewley, *Senior Geographer*, Bureau of Land Management *
*Carol Brandt, *Geospatial Information Program Manager,* Bureau of
Transportation Statistics/DOT *
*Gregory J Allord,* Science Information and Education Office*,
Geological Survey *
*Michael P. McDermott, *National Coordinator*, *Natural Science
Network*, Geological Survey* **
*William R. “Bill” Effland, *Soil Scientist, *USDA/NRCS Soil Survey
Division *
*Tim Trainor, *Assistant Division Chief for Geographic Areas and
Cartographic Data Products, Geography Division**
*Robin L. Haun-Mohamed*, Director, Collection Mgmt & Preservation, *GPO*
*Ted Preibe, *Director, Library Planning & Development, *GPO*
*Dr. John R. Hébert, *Chief, Geography and Map Division*, **Library of
Congress *
*Submitted Written Agency Report:*
* Department of Energy *
* *
*Federal Agency Presentations Schedule*
*Thursday PM, 4 May, beginning 1:15 PM***
1:15—Welcome, introductions, (remarks by Christine Clarke, NCRS)
1:30-- Remote sensing/NRCS, George Rohaley
2:00--USFS, Susan DeLost
2:30--*NARA**, Brett Abrams*
*3:00--BLM, Bob Bewley*
3:30, closing remarks
*Friday, May 5, 2006, beginning 9AM*
9:00-- Welcome, introductions, last-minute preparations
9:15-- BTS, Carol Brandt
9:45—USGS, Greg Allord and Mike McDermott
/10:30-10:45--break///
10:45--Soil Survey/NRCS, Bill Effland
11:30--CENSUS, Tim Trainor
/LUNCH—USDA cafeteria///
1:00--GPO, Robin L. Haun-Mohamed and Ted Priebe
1:45--LC/G&M, John Hébert
2:30, closing remarks
*
Introductory Session Remarks: Christine Clarke, NCRS.*
Chris begins by explaining that she is with the Natural Resources
Conservation Service (NRCS), one of roughly 27 organizational units in
the USDA. USDA has over 100,000 staff and NRCS, Farm and Service Agency
and Rural Development are considered the 3 field based agencies, meaning
that they have staff in almost every county in the nation. NRCS changed
its name from the Soil Conservation Service in 1994, and before that
they were the Soil Erosion Service (1935) under the DOI. Their purpose
at that time was to mediate and minimize the negative impacts of the
dust bowl and wind erosion. Today, the agency focuses on land
management, conservation, and working with farmers, ranchers, and land
owners at the local field level. They have approximately 150 GIS
specialists in the field. Some staff are district conservationists that
are using a Customer Service Tool kit (CST), which is an application
built on top of ESRI products like ArcMap. This is a user friendly
interface that can be used in all fifty states to develop farm plans,
view DOQs, or aerial photos. Other GIS users work more with raw data and
support CST users. The agency is also involved in the Federal Geographic
Data Committee (FGDC) Geo-spatial One Stop, and the Geo-spatial Line of
Business (GeoLOB).
Brief Q&A period:
1. Do you think that the government will go to a more centralized
funding system?
Answer: That’s a possibility, but it’s a challenge to compare GIS
activities across disciplines. Christine welcomes help in building a
foundation for GIS use with standard data sets and infrastructure.
Question: Has the USDA Geospatial Data Gateway limited access to data to
non .gov users?
Answer: Yes, The Gateway was developed to deliver authoritative data to
USDA agency field staff. Due to the convenience of the data access via
the Gateway, non federal use increased substantially over time. To
ensure non-federal users acquired the most up to date data from the
appropriate sources, outside users are now redirected to the
authoritative data source. In doing so, USDA does not incur distribution
responsibilities for data of which we are not the authoritative source
and users are ensured the most current information. They only turned off
those layers for which they were not the authoritative source for the
data sets (for example, data kept by USGS).
Question: Is there state-wide aerial photography available on the USDA site?
Answer: The most current aerial photography available from USDA can be
found at http://www.apfo.usda.gov/
/(submitted by Clara McLeod)/
* *
*George Rohaley, NRCS-Remote Sensing Leader*
George Rohaley’s talk, “Use of Remote Sensing in USDA and NRCS,”
included a brief overview of the use of remote sensing in NRCS, imagery
sources, applications of imagery, USDA image archive and distribution,
and USDA NAIP (National Agricultural Imagery Program), which is one of
the biggest imagery programs in USDA. He also discussed smaller projects
that are specific for NRCS and showed more than 100 slides in the
presentation.
The mission of National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) is to help
people conserve, maintain, and improve our natural resources and
environment. In short, NRCS mission is “helping people help the land.”
Most of NRCS’s acquired imagery comes from three sources: Satellites,
High and Low Altitude Airborne cameras and digital sensors. NRCS
acquires imagery for it’s people who work on the ground at the USDA
county service centers (about 3000 offices). The Service Centers have
converted from using analog data to mostly using digital data today. The
centers have ArcGIS and use agency business-oriented tools called
“Customer Service Toolkit.” Orthoimagery is used as a base map for all
GIS data layers at the Service Centers.
Most of the imagery NCRS uses comes from airborne system (film or
digital). Typically the Service Centers prefer airborne images with
natural color because it is visually more relatable to actual ground
situations. Recently, however, USDA contractors are flying more imagery
with digital sensors. We have been told that digital imagery cannot be
used in court, attorneys account for a small demand for film images.
Along with Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), Farm Service Agency
(FSA), and Forest Service (FS), NCRS is one of top four imagery users in
USDA. (Others include National Agricultural Statistical Service (NASS),
Risk Management Agency (RMA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), and
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).)
Applications of imagery within USDA include agricultural
competitiveness, agro-terrorism, base map, carbon synthesis, compliance,
base area, crop monitoring, crop condition assessment, soil survey,
disaster monitoring, drought monitoring, earning warning, environmental
monitoring, fire suppression, homeland security, resource inventory,
invasive species, land use conversion, and yield monitoring. NRCS
focuses on soil survey, crop monitoring, environmental monitoring, and
resource inventory.
Satellite images that NRCS uses primarily come by FAS. FAS has
contracted with companies such as Digital Globe, Earthsat, Eurimage,
GeoEye, Space Imaging, and SPOT to get world wide images. NRCS can gain
access to FAS images (Rohaley showed several slides for 03, 04, 05
LANDSAT acquisitions showing good coverage of US area and 06 AWIFs
acquisition). The FAS Web site, Crop Explorer
(http://www.pedcad.fas.usda.gov/cropexplorer), provides image and data
services for weather, soil moisture, crop, and vegetation conditions.
One can pick up a region, browse, and download MODIS images. These
satellite images (250-m) are in JPEG 2000 and GeoTiff formats and can be
imported into GIS. 2006 acquisition will include commercial satellite
imagery for Pacific region (Hawaii) and Alaska. These satellite images
will be accessible to the public at a degraded resolution.
USDA Image Archive and Distribution:
All aerial photographs and digital imagery acquired by NRCS must be
contracted by the USDA Aerial Photography Field Office (APFO). Located
in Salt Lake City, Utah, APFO provides contracting support for the
department’s aerial photography needs. It has one of the largest
collections of historical aerial photos dating back to the mid 1950’s.
It provides a centralized photo and imagery archive library (55,000
rolls of film and 84,000 photo indices). The system has been automated,
cataloged, and is easily retrievable. Custom scanning of historical
images are available. Films, photos, CDs, and DVDs are stored in
controlled environments.
USDA Aerial Contract Awards:
Most of these image acquisitions are done based on contract awards.
FY2005 contract awards are over 30 million ($ 33,455,497). The contract
awards have substantially increased in the last three years. Most of the
funding (71 %) goes to USDA NAIP. See the Aerial Photography Field
Office (APFO) Web site (http://www.apfo.usda.gov
<http://www.apfo.usda.gov/>) for image status, contracting services, and
any other information.
USDA Small Area Photography Contracting:
NRCS has been involved with a small area photography and aerial
photographic contracting project. This project is a five-year contract
to acquire very high resolution imagery (1:4000 to 1:15,840 scale) under
a indefinite delivery-indefinite quantity contract and for specific task
orders in smaller areas such as National Resource Inventory (NRI) sites,
which acquires imagery resolution that results in a ground resolving
distance of 2.5 inches. Why is such high resolution required? Each year,
NRI acquires approximately 70,000 sites a quarter acre in size to do as
inventory. In the past, inventory was site specific, but now it is done
primarily by photographic interpretation techniques. NRCS has specific
photographic periods, mostly in growing seasons. The NRCS contractors
update their projects status every two or three days through the web.
Data collection will be done using remote sensing techniques at three
remote sensing laboratories: Greensboro, NC, Fort Worth, TX, and
Portland OR. During FY 05, six vendors were awarded to cover small areas
such as NRI photo stations (9”x 9” photos). There are 71,514 NRI photo
locations in FY 06.
National Agricultural Imagery Program (NAIP):
This program is USDA’s largest imagery program, acquiring 1 and 2 meter
natural color digital ortho imagery during the agricultural growing
season (summer). NAIP updates 1 meter resolution images on a 5 year
cycle. Digital Compressed County Mosaic (CCM) has improved image quality
due to a 15:1 compression ratio instead of the 50:1 ratio that was
available in 2004/2005. It is available 30 days after acquisition via
USDA Geospatial Data Gateway (http://gdw.apfo.usda.gov/naip/viewer). The
program has over 23 million ($23,795,354) in 2005 in terms of funding.
The program has been additionally successful because of federal and
state cooperative partnerships. Each year NAIP has a set of states for
contracting. Why do we acquire so much ortho imagery now? Technology and
contracting have made the process price less expensive--the average cost
for 1 meter ortho rectified ($ 171.85 per DOQQ) and 2 meter rectified
($158.82 per DOQQ). Costs are more affordable because vendors are
allowed to resell “derived” or value added material after contract
products. NAIP contract awards have been increased from 9 million to 30
million from 2003 to 2006. There are many more subcontractors willing to
do this work for NAIP. In 2005, most of the country was covered (in
comparison to a mere about 5 states in the past). There are states that
are covered by 1 or 2 meter resolution. FSA acquires 2 meter digital
ortho images for an entire county and delivery is required within 30
days. NRCS primarily focuses on acquiring images in 1 meter states
through partnerships. Those states that have old images are given
priority for updating by NRCS. Trend is changing from film to digital
sensors (it is believed 50 % are covered by digital in 2006 and 60 %
will be in 2008). Rohaley showed some of NAIP mosaic imagery to show the
improved accuracy by changed resolution (1 or 2 meter) and compression
ratio from 2004 to 2005. Compressed mosaics are available to the public
through USDA Data Gateway, but higher resolution digital data is only
available by order.
Distribution links for future information and data include:
· USDA Aerial Photography Field Office
(http://gdw.apfo.usda.gov/naip/viewer) for NAIP and USDA Aerial Imagery.
· USDA Data Gateway (http://datagateway.nrcs.usda.gov
<http://datagateway.nrcs.usda.gov/>) for data products packaged by county.
· Foreign Agricultural Crop Explorer
(http://www.pecad.fas.usda.gov/cropexplorer) for global image, weather,
etc.
Digital Elevation Model (DEM):
NRCS has contracted to acquire DEM data. Most DEM data is in the public
domain. Digital elevation is used for land use planning and soil
surveys. When combined with digital ortho imagery, digital elevation
allows updating soil survey mapping on laptops rather than from the
ground (soil survey and DEM will be covered in detail at tomorrow’s
presentation).
Imagery for the Nation Proposal:
Everyone wants imagery: local, regional, state, tribal, and federal
governments, as well as the private sector. There is a proposal for
three distinct programs under imagery for the nation: one meter, one
foot, and six-inch acquisition program--a sort of infrastructure. The
one meter program, which will be managed by USDA, would enhance the
existing NAIP with the cover of the lower 48 states annually (Hawaii
every 3 years; Alaska over 5 years) with natural color. The one foot
program will be managed by USGS, covering everything east of the
Mississippi River and counties west of the Mississippi River with
populations more than 25 people/square miles, every 3 years with natural
color. The six-inch program, which will be managed by USGS, will cover
all urbanized areas per U.S. Census Bureau definitions (more than 50,000
populations with more than 1,000 people per square mile) every 3 years
with natural color. Annual total estimated budget for production,
quality control, and archive and distribution, is $114 million. Expected
taxpayer savings by replacing the existing local, state, tribal and
federal programs with one consistent national program is $159 million.
Questions/discussion:
CUAC: What happened to National High Altitude Photography (NHAP)
program, DOQs, and its creation with one meter accuracy?
The NHAP program was replaced by National Aerial Photography Program
(NAPP), which was administrated by USGS. NAPP is now gone.
NAPP produced the original source of ortho images based on 1:40K scale
and mostly black & white. However, NRCS and most of USDA do not need
NAPP product. NRCS, USDA, and Farm Service Agency also need natural
color images. Therefore, NAPP went to NAIP. The soil survey program
still needs leaf-off images such as black and white, but can get them
from archives at the USDA Aerial Field Office.
CUAC: Is there any back up system for the CD-Rom product in case there
is damage the CDs stored at the USDA Aerial Field Office in Salt Lake City?
CDs and fire wire drives are used to deliver NAIP items. Now they are on
a server. The products come in multiple copies, and states which use the
images have back-up copies. Film life span is 75 years old.
/(Submitted by Joy Suh) /
*Susan J. DeLost, *Program Manager, Geospatial Services*, USDA Forest
Service*
Susan DeLost, Geospatial Services Program Manager, spoke about “USDA
Forest Service Maps and Other Related Products” on Thursday May 4, 2006.
She began by giving an overview of the land managed by the USFS and the
mission of the USFS. Maps and geospatial data support the activities of
the USFS in a number of areas, including: forest planning, forest health
protection, watershed restoration, fire prevention & management, and
recreation. The USFS participates in interagency coordination with the
FGDC and partners with the USGS, the BLM, and other organizations
(federal, tribal, state, local) to increase efficiency and provide
additional services and products to its customers.
Maps have been an integral part of the USFS activities since the
agency’s establishment in 1905 and are a vital part of managing the
national forests and grasslands. Maps were initially produced at the
local unit level, with little standardization or consistency. Since the
mid-1970’s, with the establishment of the USFS’ Geospatial Service and
Technology Center (GSTC), the emphasis on standardization has increased,
while still allowing flexibility for local needs. The GSTC works closely
with the agency’s national forest units and Regional Offices to produce
map products, geospatial data and related applications. The GSTC and the
Remote Sensing Applications Center (RSAC) units of the USFS, co-located
in Salt Lake City, Utah, are leaders in providing geospatial information
products, training, and technical support to the agency and its many
partners. Susan distributed a CD entitled “A Legacy of Forest Service
Mapping” to all CUAC members, which gives more information about this
history.
Susan showed the traditional mapping products produced by the USFS:
general maps, forest visitor maps, topographic maps, and specialty maps
and brochures (http://www.fs.fed.us/maps/). She brought samples of some
of these maps to share with the group. They have just finished updating
the map for the brochure, “A Guide to Your National Forests and
Grasslands”, which was last updated in 2000. Another agency map product
is the Forest/Grassland Visitor Map, which has traditionally been
produced at a scale of ½” = 1 mile. Some forests are now producing these
at the 1” = 1 mile scale.
In 1992, the USFS entered into an agreement with the USGS to produce a
single-edition 1:24,000 (1:63,360 in Alaska) topographic map product
covering national forest lands. This product replaces the two similar
topographic quad products that each agency had previously produced over
the same areas. The USGS and USFS jointly developed a standard for this
series, which incorporates the traditional USGS 1:24,000 topographic
quad standards and USFS-specific information. They are updated every
7-10 years. Under the agreement, the USGS has the responsibility for
printing and distributing these maps. As a result of this agreement, the
federal government has realized savings as one map per area is produced,
instead of two, as had been the case prior to the establishment of the
single-edition agreement.
The USFS is a voting member on the Board on Geographic Names (BGN).
Betsy Kanalley is the USFS/USDA representative to the BGN and is the
current chair of the BGN’s Domestic Names Committee. The USFS
participates in updating and maintaining the Geographic Names
Information System (GNIS).
Susan discussed and showed the FS Geodata Clearinghouse
(http://fsgeodata.sc.egov.usda.gov/), which provides access to metadata
and downloadable data created by the USFS. She also showed a web-GIS
service for active fire mapping, linked from the FS Geodata Clearinghouse.
Susan also demonstrated a new USFS Geoportal intra-net site, which
provides one-stop shopping for geospatial information for agency employees.
The USFS is working on a number of new geospatial tools and products:
the Geospatial Interface, Carto Tools, MPS Atlas, Print-on-Demand, and
additional web-based data and services. The Geospatial Interface is
essentially an ESRI- ArcMap^TM extension that allows users to easily
retrieve, view and use spatial and tabular data related to their subject
area, which are stored in a number of databases across the agency.
Carto Tools provides map templates for various USFS map products that
are included in documents (e.g., Forest Plan Revisions and others) and
publications to increase the standardization of these products.
MPS Atlas is a project that the USFS is working on with ESRI that will
incorporate the Carto Tools templates into ArcGIS in order to simplify
map production for both standard and unique products.
The Print-on-Demand initiative’s goal is to design and implement a print
on demand web solution for Single Edition Quadrangles. It will first be
implemented internally, with public access planned for the future. The
USFS is exploring opportunities to partner with other service providers,
both public and private. This interface will provide access to standard
quadrangles and user-selected areas, but will not include the vegetation
tint. One goal is to provide more up-to-date data for displaying and
printing maps via a web-based service than is currently possible with
the printed map product. The USFS has not yet developed an archiving
process for this product. Susan suggested that CUAC send a letter to the
FGDC and her about the need to archive this data as it is updated.
/(Submitted by Katie Lage)/
* *
*Dr. Brett L. Abrams, *Electronic Records Archivist (*NARA*) and Chair
of the Historical Data Working Group/*FGDC*
Brett focused his presentation on the activities of the Historical Data
Working Group (HDWP) established by the Federal Geographic Data
Committee (FGDC) to promote “the awareness of the historical dimension
to geospatial data which have been financed in whole or part by Federal
funds” and to facilitate “maintaining historically valuable geospatial
data and making it available to future generations.” Current membership
includes personnel from USGS’ Eros Data Center, the FSA Aerial
Photography Field Office, DOJ, EPA, San Diego Supercomputing Center,
CIESIN (Columbia University), NC State University Library, University of
Connecticut Library (MAGIC), Boze Allen Hamilton, ESRI, FGDC, and OGC
(Open Geospatial Consortium). The group is chaired by Brett Abrams, NARA.
The function of NARA is to assist all federal agencies in managing their
records, including geospatial records, throughout their lifecycle and to
preserve those records of “enduring” value in the National Archives. The
NARA Appraisal Policy 1441 states that NARA is not only responsible for
transferring and storing records under optimal conditions but also that
they can be retrieved and their value retained during their assigned
retention periods. Geospatial records that are scheduled as permanent
include the Fish and Wildlife’s Wetlands Inventory and Wildlife Refuges
Files, The Forest Service’s Fire Management Maps, and the Bureau of the
Census 1990 and 1992 version of TIGER/Line files and the 1980 GBF/DIME File.
The current standards for the transfer of GIS records consist of the
FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata, the Spatial Data
Transfer Standard (SDTS), GML v.3.1.1 and Simple Features Profile. The
SDTS is not ideal in that it is cumbersome and USGS is not completing
scheduled maintenance. GML v.3.1.1 and Simple Features Profiles are also
problematic in that there is significant complexity and variability in
some of its elements. In addition, the schemas are not saved as a part
of the “archival bundle,” but are instead url addresses to websites that
will probably become outdated. Thus both SDTS and GML v.3.1.1 have
questionable value for archival purposes.
Currently the HDWG is pursuing building a community among individuals
and organizations interested in the historical dimension to geographical
data, including maintaining a website with a library of information and
a discussion component available to members. Future initiatives for the
working group include creating a Geospatial One Stop Portal Community
for historical collections such as those at NARA and the Library of
Congress; developing application schema and archival profile using GML
and simple features profile; and increasing the scanning of historical maps.
The following two links provide additional information about the
Historical Data Working Group:
Link to the main page:
http://www.fgdc.gov/participation/working-groups-subcommittees/hdwg/index_html
Link to the library page:
http://www.fgdc.gov/participation/working-groups-subcommittees/hdwg/folder_contents
/(Submitted by Anita K. Oser)/
* *
*Bob Bewley, *Senior Geographer*, Bureau of Land Management*
Bob Bewley, Senior Geographer at the Bureau of Land Management,
presented to CUAC on Thursday May 4, 2006. He spoke about the BLM’s
enterprise GIS, the National Integrated Lands System, national data
sets, data sharing, and showed some examples of BLM maps.
The BLM is the largest land management agency, managing 262 million
acres. In 1948 the General Land Office merged with the agency in charge
of grazing on public lands to for the Bureau of Land Management. The
BLM’s mandate comes from the 1976 Federal Lands Policy Act.
The BLM is in the process of creating an enterprise GIS. An enterprise
GIS is defined as, “… a business-wide GIS that is characterized by
standard data, in a transactional format that allows update, maintenance
and use by all levels of the organization.” The BLM’s enterprise GIS
will support standardized data and serve out core datasets across all
levels of the agency in support of the BLM’s goals. Bob explained that
the creation of an enterprise GIS needs: data standards, software and
hardware, telecom support, the personnel to create and support it, and
business/management support.
The BLM is exploring two models of an enterprise GIS: a state model and
a national model. The state model will serve out resource data,
standardized by state. This data will include such data as wildlife
habitats, range improvements, etc. The national model is the National
Integrated Land System (NILS) at www.geocommunicator.gov
<http://www.geocommunicator.gov/>. NILS serves out land records, base
maps, and some resource data. The majority of the resource data is
collected at 1:24,000. The land records parcel data is generated from
legal land descriptions and the Geographic Coordinate Data Base (GCDB).
GCDB is cadastral ground survey data, decoded from old survey maps and
survey data entered from recent cadastral projects. NILS includes
feature-level metadata. The BLM plans on working with other agencies to
add data for non-public lands to NILS.
Bob showed CUAC examples of the Land and Mineral Use Records Viewer in
NILS. The national data sets included in NILS are: range allotments,
areas of critical environmental concern, land use planning boundaries,
BLM administrative units, national lands conservation system, surface
management agency, oil and gas leases, mining claims, and geothermal leases.
NILS also includes some USFS data, as the BLM partners with USFS to
serve it out. For example, the Land and Mineral Use Records Viewer
displays data about the recent USFS Rural Schools Conveyance proposal.
The BLM’s policy is to share data between federal agencies and local and
state governments. Bob’s presentation included a list of BLM data
administrators by state, included at the end of these minutes.
Bob then discussed BLM standard maps. The BLM creates 1:100,000 Surface
Management Status maps digitally and prints paper maps. 1:500,000
Surface Management Status maps are created for all western states. Both
of these series are updated approximately every 7 years. There was a
question from CUAC members about the 1:500,000 maps not coming through
the FDLP. Bob suggested we talk with Bill Jackson. He understood that
they should be coming through the FDLP. Katie (Lage) said she would
contact Bill Jackson. Bob showed examples of both of these standard map
series.
The BLM also creates specialized maps such as mining maps, potash area
maps, and oil and gas reserve maps. These specialized maps use the
standard BLM line styles and colors but regional cartographers have more
freedom with these types of maps than with the standard 1:100,000 and
1:500,000 maps. Bob showed many examples of the variety of specialized
maps produced by the BLM.
CUAC members had a question about NILS data being sent out through the
FDLP. Bob said that some of the data sets are proprietary. For the
non-proprietary data, this might be a possibility. He would talk with
GPO about this. CUAC members also inquired if the NILS data is being
archived as it is updated and changed. The NILS data is “versioned” and
archived on a quarterly basis.
BLM Data Administrators
o *ALASKA** *Linda Ricketts,271-4645907-
o *ARIZONA** *Rick Selbach, 602-417-9386
o *CALIFORNIA* Rob Cervantes 978 454
o *COLORADO* Adrian Caufield, 303-239-3941
o *EASTERN STATES* John Douglas, CIO 202-452-1638
o *IDAHO* Dave Burley, 208-373-4075
o *MONTANA** *Norma Smith 406-896-5270
o *NEVADA** *Marguerite McKee 775-861-6519
o *NEW MEXICO** *Rene Berkhoudt, 505-438-7620
o *Oregon** *Stan Frazier, 503-808-6009**
o *UTAH* Walt Phelps, 801-539-4125
o *WYOMING* Renee Duval, 307-775-6244
o *WASHINGTON** OFFICE - *Melanie Rhinehart, Data Manager 303-236-9940
o *WASHINGTON** OFFICE - IRM POLICY GROUP* Jim Horan, 202-452-5023 **
/(Submitted by Katie Lage)/
*Carol Brandt, *Geospatial Information Program Manager,* Bureau of
Transportation Statistics/*DOT
Carol spoke on the status of the Geospatial Information Program at BTS.
As a result of a February 2005 reorganization, BTS became part of the
new Research & Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) within the US
Department of Transportation (DOT). The BTS Geospatial Information
Program (BTS/GEO) lost funding this past fiscal year and was forced to
discontinue the Internet Mapping Center on their website, thus losing
all their online mapping capabilities. BTS/GEO can no longer support the
viewing and downloading of transportation data sets through the web or
share mapping applications previously developed. Currently, BTS/GEO is
trying to get the databases back on the web and available for
downloading, so patrons will not have to order a data CD.
BTS/GEO will continue to: produce the annual National Transportation
Atlas Databases (NTAD, a Congressional mandate); provide mapping support
to the Crisis Management Center; and work on the National Spatial Data
Infrastructure, GeoSpatial One-Stop, and FGDC. In their roll on the
National Spatial Data Infrastructure, BTS/GEO is charged with
coordinating the DOT presence and the transportation layer. The RITA
administrator has recently been named to the FGDC steering committee, so
this may bring more attention and time involvement to working with that
group. Recently proposed Data Exchange Standards for Geospatial One-Stop
were approved by an ANSI sub-committee and have been passed on to ANSI
for adoption. Since their web site with interactive mapping has been
taken down, BTD/GEO no longer plays a day-to-day role in Geospatial
One-Stop.
The 2006 NTAD, due out this summer, will include the usual
transportation datasets, as well as the following new information:
Highway Performance Monitoring System (HPMS); Automatic Traffic Recorder
Stations (ATR); Weigh In Motion Stations (WIM); and Hazardous Materials
(HAZMAT) Routes. Also included in NTAD are the following geographic
reference datasets obtained from other agencies: national populated
places, urbanized area boundaries, 109^th congressional district
boundaries, county and state boundaries, hydrographic features,
metropolitan statistical area boundaries (all from Bureau of the
Census), national park boundaries (National Park Service), Metropolitan
Planning Organization Boundaries (DOT), non-attainment areas (EPA/DOT),
and military bases (Military Surface Deployment and Distribution
Command, SDDC). These geographic datasets area way to make the NTAD
product a transportation “map in a box,” so users can add GIS capability
to the geographic and numeric data included and create their own maps.
BTS/GEO provides mapping and analysis support to the Crisis Management
Center, including assistance on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and other
emergency situations, as well as handling special mapping/spatial
analysis requests from Congress and the DOT Secretary, e.g., air traffic
hub mapping and “Annual Rural Airport Analysis” information. Much of
this spatial analysis and information is available internally and on not
the web due to the sensitive nature of the data, e.g., pipeline locations.
BTS/GEO is currently involved with the Geospatial Line of Business (LoB)
federal government initiative. Geospatial LoB is a new plan for agencies
to work together to: identify opportunities to share common geospatial
processes and functions across government; result in a more coordinated
approach to producing, maintaining, and using geospatial data; ensure
sustainable participation from Federal partners to establish a
collaborative model for geospatial-related activities and investments;
and influence the FY08 budget cycle. Since the GLoB scheme was sent to
the agencies in March, much of Brandt’s time has been spent on
determining how best to work with other agencies to set up and conduct
the Geospatial LoB.
Until a few years ago, a number of BTS geospatial information products
were disseminated through the federal depository program, but this is no
longer the case. Brant and GPO representative Robin Haun-Mohamed plan to
discuss this situation soon.
New activities for BTS/GEO include working with National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration (NHTSA) on the next generation of E-911 to
integrate geospatial information (the current system does not handle
text messaging and imagery used by some phones); and working with the
Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) on Highway Performance Monitoring
System data collection, as well as promoting the 50^th anniversary of
the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System (see the site at
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/interstate/homepage.cfm for more information,
including lists of both road songs and road movies). BTS/GEO continues
to participate in the geospatial aspects of other DOT programs: freight
analysis framework, scenic byways, and road closures (with FHWA); real
time airport status, aeronautical charting, and temporary flight
restrictions (with the FAA); Fatality Analysis Reporting System (with
NHTSA); maintenance of the geospatial data distributed through NTAD
(with FRA, the Federal Railroad Administration); programs to encourage
greater transit ridership (with FTA, the Federal Transit
Administration); and hazardous materials programs (with FMCSA, the
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration).
The National Transportation Library, located within the BTS and billed
as “… a virtual library for the transportation community,” was also
affected by the budget cuts. Current plans call for maintaining the
digital portion of the Library’s mission, but eliminating collection
development, cataloging, and library reference services. The Library
will continue its partnership with the Transportation Research Board
(TRB) to produce Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS)
Online. The TRIS Database is the world's largest and most comprehensive
bibliographic resource on transportation information. TRIS contain over
600,000 records of published and ongoing research covering all modes and
disciplines of transportation. In addition, the National Transportation
Library plans to coordinate with transportation libraries around the
country to leverage past work on a union catalog, a “system of
libraries.” This work was spearheaded by the current head of the
library, who will leave that position in a few weeks, so the future of
this initiative is unclear. It is possible that the Library could move
up into RITA, resulting in the receipt of more funding.
*Contact information: Carol Brandt ([log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>)*
Web Sites for Further Information:
Research & Innovative Technology Administration (RITA):
http://www.rita.dot.gov/
BTS/GEO: http://www.bts.gov/programs/geographic_information_services/
National Transportation Library, http://ntl.bts.gov/
/ (Submitted by Mary McInroy)/
*Gregory J Allord,* Science Information and Education Office*, *and
*Michael P. McDermott, *National Coordinator*, *Natural Science
Network*, Geological Survey* **
The USGS has been transitioning for a while. It is now divided into
disciplines such as geology, geography, water, etc. The Geospatial
Information Office (GIO), oversees information activities including the
library, publishing and information dissemination activities. For the
first time in the history of the USGS, these activities have been
centralized in the same group. Within the Science Information and
Education office of the GIO is the Natural Science Network, Publishing,
E-Web (the USGS’ enterprise web activities) and education. These groups
are working on combining their activities. The Library is now part of
the Natural Science Network.
The vision of the Natural Science Network (NSN) is to be a nationally
linked network of USGS data, information, and knowledge available to
anyone, anywhere, anytime. The NSN has several components, including the
knowledge management, information delivery and Science Information and
Library Services. The Knowledge Network is where information is created.
The concept of the knowledge network is that everything the USGS does is
part of the Knowledge Network. The knowledge is owned by the Science
Programs (Biology, Geology, GIO, Water, Geography & Science Support).
The work of the Natural Science Network is to bring the information
together through network activities and make it accessible to the
public. The USGS does this through their information services
activities, which brings together the Library, information services and
distribution. The Network is made up of the people and the tools to get
the information out to the public. The USGS is interested in comments on
their services and information.
SILS, Science Information and Library Services, includes Library
Services, Information Services (which are the old Earth Science
Information Centers (ESICs)) and the call center. The idea for this
structure originated in a 2002 directive from the former USGS director
Chip Groat. It combines two different cultures, libraries and
information services. USGS is still working to combine these two
cultures. The information service group has existed for nearly 50 years,
and includes entities that existed before ESICs. Information services is
the organized effort to handle inquiries (USGS receives about 400,000
inquiries a year), from telephone, e-mail and visitors. Responding to
these inquiries will continue, but it will not be a function of the
library. The reference librarian’s activities overlap the information
service. USGS is looking for models of how to implement the combined
Library and Information Service.
Knowledge Management is the place where tools that allow people to
access USGS information are created. This includes the FAQ web site,
which allows people to get more information on the web. The USGS wants
to develop more of these tools, and is just starting on this effort.
Information Delivery consists of the work that USGS has done all along,
such as distributing publications and maps. The USGS is moving towards a
print on demand system for maps and publications. This is a complicated
task with which the USGS is struggling, because it is difficult to
convert the contents of a 5-acre warehouse to an on-demand system. The
USGS is still in the process of trying to figure out how to do this. The
change will not happen instantly, instead it will be a gradual
transition. For the near future, the USGS will continue to produce paper
maps and make them available as they make the transition. USGS does
intend to deliver as much information as possible via the web, but will
keep a limited amount of paper stock available for the near future. One
of the primary reasons for this is emergencies. In the event of an
emergency, the responders want a paper map. For example, after Hurricane
Rita, there was a lot of GPS work done to identify flooded areas, but
the emergency responders still wanted printed maps. This has identified
another issue: in the event of an emergency, if everything is digital,
how do you go from digital to print? Plotting is another issue that
needs to be addressed. The USGS is working through all of these issues.
Under former USGS Director Chip Groat, the USGS moved towards a matrix
management structure, which means that people report to two managers. A
new USGS director has just been named. Until he is confirmed, the USGS
will continue to operate based on these plans. However, things could
change with the new USGS director. In the case of the USGS, people
report to their regional manager as well as a manager or coordinator who
oversees a particular functional or program area. As Coordinator of the
Natural Science Network, Mike McDermott coordinates the information
activities of the 3 USGS regions, including the Libraries, although his
office has very little staff. All of the work is done in the regions,
and people in those offices, including the libraries, report to their
regional managers. However, the Coordinator’s office controls the money
and allocates funds to various programs. The key coordinator of the
libraries, the National Library Coordinator, will lead the activities of
the USGS Libraries. As coordinator for the Natural Science Network, Mike
is working to fill the position of National Library Coordinator; this
person will oversee the World’s largest Earth Science Library and will
develop the vision to establish a national digital earth science
library. While they still want to retain the analog, they need to
balance the book collection and at the same time develop a digital library.
Depository Library activities are in flux. There is a Congressional
mandate and OMB Directive to make information available over the Web.
GPO is also trying to identify the legacy publications, roles and
responsibilities. The USGS is trying to comply with those mandates, but
is also still trying to determine how to go about complying with these
mandates with cartographic materials.
Greg Allord is the National Manager of the USGS Publishing Program,
which was a loose confederation of units within the various disciplines.
Instead of doing a competitive outsourcing process, the USGS has been
allowed to create a high-performing organization. They have mandates and
metrics that they have to meet, but are allowed to do the work in the
transition period and retain the management autonomy. They do not have a
contractual obligation to meet the terms of competitive sourcing. USGS
had about 250 publishing professionals two years ago, including editors,
illustrators and cartographers but that number is now down to
approximately 190. They report to their regional structure, including 3
regional publishing managers. Greg oversees policy and funding,
including allocating money to the various regions to prepare materials
for dissemination.
There are certain elements within the National Publishing program that
need to be consistent. In the past the various disciplines have set
their own process. Now there will be national consistency within all
disciplines, and within the 3 regional operations. They have been
working to develop the USGS Publications Warehouse, populate it with
verified citations, and provide digital content. Over half of the
publications in the Publications Warehouse are now available digitally.
They are working to convert the paper to digital at the rate of about
1000 titles a month. Their goal is to convert all paper publications to
digital over the next few years. They will also be working to create
permanent URLs (PURLs) for the digital items in the Warehouse.
A number of cartographic issues were raised last year at the Map and
Geographic Information in Transition conference. The USGS National
Program is working to follow up on these issues. They are starting to
move on these issues, and the USGS recognizes that they do have a
responsibility to continue to provide the traditional products such as
the Professional Papers, Scientific Investigations and topographic maps.
However, they are still trying to develop an answer for some of the
issues. Greg went on to discuss a project that is being done to scan and
preserve older topographic maps. The goal is to convert all of the paper
to digital and do so in a way that the maps are touched only one more
time. They want scans of maps that will be acceptable to the National
Archives and Records Administration to archive, and use to produce
derivative products. The final product will be a publicly accessible
Web-based collection of current and historical USGS quadrangles.
The USGS is working on this project through partners, and providing the
framework for the scanned images. They have an internal, unverified
database that was developed to manage the printing and production of
maps. This is the USGS starting point for the project. They have
developed and tested the process, which includes scanning and metadata.
They will be working on geoprocessing the images at a later time. There
are several critical partners in the project, including the USGS
Libraries in Reston and Denver, the Robinson Map Library in Madison, WI,
and the Library of Congress, which is serving as a reference collection,
providing map metadata standards and recommendations for the delivery of
the map images. The Robinson Map Library is the primary site that is
providing some of the initial content for the project. With Student
Assistants, they are able to scan and verify about 100 maps a day. They
are creating records for each topographic map based on a Qualified
Dublin Core metadata standard, which can be cross-walked to MARC at a
later date. They are also including some optional elements, which
include publisher, contributor (partners), source, and required elements
unique to each map including identifier, original date and area of coverage.
The work is being done at a resolution of 400 dpi or greater, 24 bit
color. They will be doing the 1:24,000 topographic maps for each state
first, then the other scales for that state. The maps are being scanned
and saved as an uncompressed TIFF images; USGS is using that scanned
image as the starting point. They are using an Access database that
gives historical information on publishing history for each quadrangle
that is being used as a reference tool to provide some of the basic
metadata elements. They started with Wisconsin in June and finished
scanning all dates and scales by September. The work includes every
edition, including updates and photorevisions. They then worked on
scanning the areas that had been impacted by Hurricane Katrina. They are
now focusing on Minnesota, Illinois, Nebraska, and Kansas. Some are done
and some are in progress. They are going to swap some of the USGS data
for scans of topographic maps for Indiana that are being produced by a
man who does title searches. Once a state is complete, the Access
database of maps for each state will be compared against the holdings of
the USGS Library, which, they believe, is the authoritative site with a
copy of every topographic map produced by USGS. The USGS Library will
validate and fill in gaps. The USGS is interested in collaboration, and
will have to deal with accessibility. The USGS has a count of the number
of maps they have in their unverified database. When all topographic
maps, each edition, at all scales are considered, there are about
300,000 maps for the entire United States. They are interested in
information from organizations that have done or are doing similar
projects, including the name of the organization that scanned the map, a
description of the scan, the date map was scanned (MM-DD-YYYY), the
image format, resolution (dpi), color depth (bit), and compression
(NONE, LZW, etc). They are interested in hearing from organizations that
have scans of at least 100 maps or more. Additional information on the
project will be available at: http://pubs.usgs.gov/historicquads (this
site will be active in the future).
For more information, contact Gregory Allord, Cartographer, U.S.
Geological Survey, Science Information and Education Office, Publishing
Program, Madison, WI, [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> .
More information on the project is at:
http://infotrek.er.usgs.gov/pls/htmldb/f?p=182:1:3421198413713854611
Contact for Mike McDermott: Mike McDermott, National Coordinator of the
Natural Science Network, 703-648-5771, [log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>.
/(Submitted by Linda Zellmer)/
*William R. Effland*, Ph.D., U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural
Resources Conservation Service Soil Survey Division (*USDA-NRCS*)
*Technology for Soil Survey: Digital Orthophotography and Digital
Elevation Models*. During the presentation Dr. Effland covered the
National Digital Orthophoto Program (NDOP), Digital Elevation Model
(DEM) data collection, creation, sources and applications. Additionally,
he demonstrated the NRCS’s National Cooperative Soil Survey (NCSS) web
site, Web Soil Survey located at http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/.
In his presentation Dr. Effland discussed the NDOP Interagency Steering
Committee’s purpose to create an orthophoto base that is part of the
NSDI and he explained the Committee’s general operating principles. He
then demonstrated the NDOP site located at http://www.ndop.gov/. The
site has links to imagery sources and also data
http://www.ndop.gov/data.html. There was a discussion about the
difference between the need for NRCS imagery to be leaf-off for soils
information gathering versus other agency needs which require leaf-on
for agricultural and environmental applications.
During the DEM presentation, Dr. Effland discussed the National Digital
Elevation Program (http://www.ndep.gov/) and the advances in using Light
Detecting and Ranging (LiDAR) and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture
Radar (IfSAR) in creating digital surface models (DSM), Digital Terrain
Models (DTM) and Orthorectified Radar Imagery (ORI). He commented that
the data is acquired under a licensing agreement, but derived products
will be public domain. Lastly Dr. Effland discussed the products created
from digital elevation models (DEM) and DEM applications that produce
derived data for Topographic Wetness Indices, Stream Power Indices,
Revised USLE “LS” Factor, Solar Radiation Indices, and Temperature
Indices. He also discussed drainage basin analysis products derived from
DEMs.
/(submitted by Joe Aufmuth)/
*Tim Trainor, *Assistant Division Chief for Geographic Areas and
Cartographic Data Products, Geography Division, *Census Bureau*
There are many things going on at the Census Bureau this spring and
summer. Moving to a new building in August 2006 involves scanning many
items rather than transporting volumes of paper. The Geography Division
will relocate from its current off-site facilities to the new building
in August 2006.
TIGER files are undergoing a major overhaul using existing GIS files
from state and various other levels of government when available. The
remaining geographic area information will be updated through other
acquired sources. When complete in Spring 2008, TIGER street centerline
data will have 7.6 meter or better accuracy. Status maps show the
project progress on the Census website every two weeks.
The Census Bureau is working in partnership with tribal, state and local
governments and plans to provide them with a software tool to assist in
updating their TIGER data if they do not have their own GIS. The Census
Bureau requires constantly updated street and address information. In
addition, an annual Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS) is conducted
for most legal entities and will include the full complement of legal
areas beginning with the 2008 BAS. The Bureau will need to continue this
full boundary survey each year to support the annual American Community
Survey (ACS).
In late summer or early fall 2006 there will be a notice in the /Federal
Register/ requesting comment on proposed changes to statistical areas
supporting the 2010 Census. The criteria for census tracts are not
expected to change. To support the ACS in offering detailed data for
small area geography, larger block groups will improve data availability
while maintaining the Census Bureau’s requirement of confidentiality of
data. The review will include all statistical areas for which data is
reported from the decennial census.
The 2010 Census will be the first to include tabulations by school
district. School district boundaries have been collected and are
maintained every two years in the TIGER database.
The Census Bureau ultimately plans to make a transition from FIPS codes
to ANSI format place designations. FIPS-55 place and county subdivision
codes currently are not being maintained, but there are some concerns
with use of GNIS in their place. The USGS/GNIS view of a “place” is not
necessarily tied to a legal governmental unit in the same way that the
Census Bureau requires (for instance, places at the boundary of two
states sharing the same place name may be treated as a single place by
GNIS). In addition, GNIS identification numbers are assigned
sequentially with no hierarchical relation to the geography and hence
cannot be sorted alphabetically.
The Census Bureau website continues to maintain geographic and
cartographic products in a prominent location on the home page. In
response to Hurricane Katrina the Bureau has created special census
tract PDF reference maps for the Gulf States using a less cluttered
means of displaying tract information.
The American Community Survey of a sample of approximately 250,000
households per month began in 2005. The first data from the Survey will
be released later this summer. It will only be available for areas of >
65,000 due to confidentiality constraints. Every three years floating
averages will be published for populations between 20,000 and 65,000,
and at five year intervals to smaller areas going down to the block
group level.
Testing for the 2010 Census, which will not include a long form (since
ACS will provide this data), is well underway. Some of the field tests
have used hand held devices to collect data. Using GPS they intend to
capture the location of every house (except in Alaska) to an accuracy of
3 meters. Matching these precise locations with updated address
information should reduce the very expensive need for multiple follow up
visits to non-respondent households.
The Census Bureau would like feedback from CUAC and/or its member
organizations as to what formats to provide for geographic information:
How should spatial data traditionally provided via TIGER/Line files be
made available?
While shapefiles meet the needs of many users, they lack topology. Is
this a concern?
Geographic mark up language (GML) is rich but complex. The Census Bureau
has been developing capabilities to consider GML as a dissemination
format. The Bureau plans to finalize decisions on use of TIGER/GML by 2008.
PDF format for cartography continues to work well for the Census Bureau,
but they will provide web mapping options as well. Are paper maps still
needed?
Discussion after the presentation centered on the county subdivision
geographic units, Minor Civil Divisions and Census County Divisions, and
how these units will be reported in 2010 and the ACS.
Participants were also concerned about availability of historic Census
boundaries and efforts such as the Minnesota Historical Boundary Project
to provide this information.
/(submitted by Thelma Thompson)/
* *
*Robin L. Haun-Mohamed*, Director, Collection Mgmt & Preservation, *GPO*
*GPO Reorganization*: reorganized into business units
* Library Services and Content Management (formerly Information
Dissemination and Superintendent of Documents) is under Ric Davis.
Sections of Library Services and Content Management include:
o Library Technical Information Services (cataloging)
+ Laurie Beyer Hall, Jennifer Davis, Linda Resler,
o Library Planning and Development (policy and planning)
+ Ted Priebe, Karen Sieger, Lisa Russell, Janet Scheitle
o Collection Management and Preservation
+ Robin Haun-Mohamed, James Mauldin, Lance Cummins,
Janet McCaskill
+ They handle acquisitions/distribution, education,
outreach and conferences
* See the organization chart in file Library Services and Content
Management.pdf. (Updated from handout distributed at the
Depository Library Council Meeting, April 2-5, 2006)
* Publication and Information Sales is under Kevin O’Toole,
* Judy Russell, Superintendent of Documents, will focus on expanding
the development of a new model for the FDLP with Congress and
GPO’s Library partners
* Public Printer of the United States, Bruce James has announced his
retirement. He intends to stay until his replacement is in place.
*Upcoming Events*:
* Interagency Depository Seminar: July 31 – August 4, 2006. Not
planned over a weekend this year. GPO is also hoping for better
hotel rates at the end of the summer.
* Fall Depository Library Conference and Council Meeting: October
22-25, 2006, hotel not yet announced
* Comments on 2006 Recommended Specifications for Public Access
Workstations in Federal Depository Libraries, comments to Cindy
Etkin ([log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>) by June 1, 2006. Will
be published in the June or July Administrative Notes.
*Maps Information*:
· USGS distribution problems, Interagency agreement between GPO and USGS
has come up for renewal and will be take care of. GPO also believes
there is a problem in the warehouse. GPO has reached out to their
contacts at USGS to find out what is going on.
· Linda Zellmer stated that she is not getting USGS shipping lists in a
timely manner; by the time we get the shipping lists on the web site, it
is too late to claim missing maps. Robin will look into that and try to
resolve the problem.
· Distribution of Bureau of Land Management maps. Dan Seldin stated that
when USGS was printing for BLM there was an agreement that maps would
come flat (not folded) to depository libraries. Now USGS is not printing
the maps and they are coming folded. Katie is working with the BLM rep
to get flat instead of folded maps distributed to libraries.
· USGS report series consolidated into just a few series and may not be
making it into the depository system. USGS and GPO need to look at this
problem.
· CIA Maps are in the World Factbook. They are also increasingly
available online and not in paper.
· NOS and Aeronautical Maps are being cataloged as serials, when possible.
· Map distribution statistics so far for 2006:
USGS 189
BLM 135
CIA 20
NOS 188
FAA 25
NGA 0
(pulled together by Betty Jones, now working in the Archives Unit)
· No NGA distribution may be related to international events. There is a
need to find a contact and open discussions with NGA. Robin will see
what she can find out and get back to us,
· Linda Zellmer asked about VMAP1 (sale 1:250,000) electronic data
recently completed by NGA. Distribution may be daunting on CD/DVD
because of the numbers of CD/DVDs needed. Indiana University would be
happy to store and serve the data if that would get it available.
· Bruce Obenhaus asked about item number surveys. The question came up
because in 2003? NIMA stated they had maps ready for distribution and
was waiting for GPO to survey to see what libraries wanted them. Robin
thinks we missed the window of opportunity on that one. Robin is trying
to find a contact in NGA. When that happens she will find out if that
material is still available. She suspects it is not.
*Important Projects*:
· Sales and Distribution RFP has been released with an option for
Depository Distribution included.
· Beta mode for the OPAC for the new ILS and the newly redone Catalog of
U.S. Government Publications is almost over. They are working on
restoring title browsing which they had at one point but it went away.
· New askGPO contact center hours, 7am to 8 pm eastern time.
· Authentication of Digital Files is waiting for the award of the
contract. This is bulk signing of PDF to ensure authenticity of the
document. This is one of the requirements of the Future Digital System.
· Biennial Survey:
The 2005 Biennial Survey of Depository Libraries ran from December 2,
2005 through the end of December 2005. Since then, GPO has been adding
libraries that were late responders. As of March 13, 2006, 1,214
libraries have responded. GPO is working to get the data compiled and
available.
Questions 65 and 66, dealing with digital publications files, generated
a healthy exchange of ideas for the discussion lists.
/Q. 65: My library systematically downloads, stores online publications
identified from GPO Access or through GPO-created PURLS, and makes them
accessible to the general public from local servers. This past year my
library downloaded the following number of digital publication files
(this does not include shipping lists, Web pages, or datasets):/
Percentage of tabulated responses:
0---81.06%
1-25---10.91%
26-100---3.05%
101-500---3.53%
501-1000---0.64%
1001-5000---0.80%
More than 5000---0.00%
/Q. 66. My library is willing to receive Federal digital publication
files on deposit from GPO, store them, and make the accessible to the
general public from local servers. My library is willing to receive the
following number of digital publication files per year (this does not
include shipping lists, Web pages, or databases):/
/Depository Library Council Update April 2006 /
Percentage of tabulated responses:
0 72.52%
1-25 15.31%
26-100 4.77%
101-500 3.25%
501-1000 1.93%
1001-5000 1.12%
More than 5000 1.12%
· Web Harvesting Project two vendors going through EPA web sites
identifying any in-scope federal publication. These harvesting efforts
will be compared to what GPO has found manually to see if this is a good
method of capturing fugitive documents. The first scan has recently been
completed but the data is not in yet.
· GPO\FedEx Kinkos Express Program, a service for printing for agencies
at discount prices, has identified 11 documents in-scope for the
depository system. This may prove a good way to capture what would
become fugitive documents. More information can be found at
http://www.gpo.gov/gpoexpress/index.html
· Digitization of the Historical Collection project was approved by the
Joint Committee on Printing at the end of March. A pilot project will
run for 6 months, beginning June 1. Material to be digitized is part of
the first tier in GPO’s Priorities for Digitization of Legacy
Collection, located at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/legacy/index.html.
Requests for donations of specific publications will be sent very soon
to the documents community, including Federal Register, Congressional
Record, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Code, Congressional Record
Indexes, possibly Bills (possibly because they don't want to do it from
microfiche and they have to find paper copies), and Public and Private
Laws. Digitization Specs will be covered by Ted Priebe.
*Ted Preibe, *Director, Library Planning & Development, *GPO*
* Library Planning & Development is responsible for new and existing
initiatives for tangible, electronic, and Web collections within
the Library Planning and Development organizations.
* *Future Digital System*, a content management system that will
provide permanent public access to all federal government
information, is to accomplish preservation, version control and
authentication. Access is the key so users can get it in the
format they want including print on demand, hand held devices and
future digital formats.
* *Digitization Project*: Digital Conservation Service (DCS) is
responsible for the digitization project that was approved by the
Joint Committee on Printing at the end of March and starting June
1. DCS is not only to provide a mechanism for completing the
project but also reaching out in a collaborative way to agencies
and talking to customers about what the goals are from a
preservation level and access level. Preservation and access are
not the same thing, factors include scanning resolution, what is a
faithful reproduction, and color vs. black and white. There is a
need to educate the public and customers on these factors so
something is not digitized more than once. DCS is also looking
into metadata creation (brief bibliographic record or full catalog
record). Specifications are available from GPO.
* *Preservation Quality Scanning*: working on establishing a
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between GPO and NARA and LC to
not duplicate digitization efforts. Hopefully this will result in
all working on common standards for baseline preservation quality
scanning. There is an opportunity to bring in more federal
agencies and get broad-based support. The standards are necessary
for long term success of the digitization project and to avoid
duplication of effort. Preservation is underlying theme. The
standards call for scanning at resolutions of a high enough
quality so that it can be repurposed into any number of formats
based on what the current technologies are and what technologies
are projected for the future.
* Digitization specifications – version 3.3 are available at GPO
website. Quality control specifications are going out for public
comment probably next week concerning quantitative measures to use
to say what is a faithful reproduction, what is the level of
accuracy expected.
* *RFP for Master Integrator* for FDSys is available at
http://www.gpo.gov/projects/fdsys.htm.
* *Registry of Digitization Projects*: GPO would like to know about
any digitization projects. Please register at the registry of
digitization projects. Information on the priorities for
digitization of the legacy collection and the registry of U.S.
Government publication digitization projects is available at
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/legacy/. The goal is permanent free
public access.
/ (Submitted by Bruce Obenhaus)/
* *
*Dr. John R. Hébert, *Chief, Geography and Map Division*, **Library of
Congress*
The L.C. Geography and Map Division is working with Readex to scan the
colored maps from the Serial Set. The project has reached Serial Set
maps produced by 1900.
Last year's conference on the Future of Map Libraries, sponsored by CUAC
and the Geography and Map Division, has brought about a number of
cooperative ventures. The University of Texas and the University of
California System have proposed the scanning of pre-1923 Sanborn maps
for their respective states. The University of Texas has planned to send
a person to scan the maps and California is contemplating funding to
have LC scan the maps. There is a common agreement on standards. The
maps will be scanned for research at 300 DPI and would be compressed
using JPEG 2000.
Another cooperative program is the National Digital Infrastructure
Preservation Project which will create archival digital collections.
There are 2 geospatial projects in the NDIIPP. North Carolina State
University is trying to capture North Carolina state and local digital
spatial data. University of California, Santa Barbara and Stanford
University are collecting cartographic and geospatial data and are
testing ways to ensure migration of those data.
The Geography and Map Division is working with the LC Office of
Strategic Initiatives to look into LC archiving the National Map and
National Atlas as a backup to USGS. The G & M Division is also looking
into working with USGS and the National Archives to archive and possibly
scan the "legacy" collection of USGS quadrangle maps. There has to be an
agreement on scanning standards.
There have been some international programs. Academia Sinica from
Taipei, Taiwan has sent a team of specialists and technicians in the
falls of 2004 and 2005 to scan, using their own equipment, pre-1970 maps
of China. The G & M Division has started a project to catalog the
scanned images, increasing the control of their holdings. The National
Library of Korea came to review the Division's historical holdings of
Korea. They have proposed a project to preserve and to scan these rare
maps and atlases in 2006 and 2007.
While hiring remains tight at LC, the G & M Division will be permitted
to fill 2 cataloging positions from within Library Services. Also the
Division will be able to fill the positions of Cataloging Team Leader
from within the Library and the Head of the Reading Room from within
Library Services (the former Head retired at Christmas 2005). The
Division can hire a GS-14 Digital Specialist from outside LC. A GS 9-12
Cartographer for the Congressional Cartography Program can also be hired.
LC is planning to put the 1507 Waldseemuller map on permanent display in
late summer 2007 in a special encasement with inert gases and constant
monitoring that will last 20-25 years without degradation. They are
planning a 2 day conference in September 2007 to discuss all aspects of
the map and its time period.
The digital team has scanned over 9000 maps that have been put on LC's
web site. The most impressive additions during the past year are the
Jedediah Hotchkiss Civil War maps and a collection of situation maps
from World War Two showing the daily progress of allied forces through
Europe from D-Day to V.E. Day.
The Congressional Cartography Program has one GIS specialist who is
producing maps for Congressmen and Senators. The maps produced are not
available unless the Congressman or Senator makes them available. The
Program is producing congressional district maps and state maps with
congressional boundaries.
The current acting team leader for the Cataloging Team in G&M is Rodney
Pollock. Two years ago, the G & M Division began a pilot project to
allow online access to set map holdings. Then the funding for the
project ended. During the past four months, this project has been
resurrected with the development of a plan to capture holdings data on
LC's Sudan set maps; G&M holds 55 different series covering Sudan. Using
the Sudan capture as a proof of concept, the G & M Division will seek
funding to launch a larger effort to develop digital access to sheet
level holdings for their approximately 2,000,000 sheet set map collection.
With regards to digital data, the G & M Division is cataloging only
CD-ROMs and not online data. They are attempting to list all the data
sets in the record.
/(Submitted by Dan Seldin)/
*Submitted Written Agency Reports:*
* *
*U.S.** Department of Energy, National Renewable Energy Resources
Laboratory, May 2006*
NREL's GIS holdings are focused on renewable resource datasets.
Currently our FTP site (http://www.nrel.gov/gis) has geographic
shapefiles of annual wind power class (for 33 states and an older
national assessment), annual and monthly solar resource (direct normal
and tilt=latitude collector), and biomass resource. In the near future,
we will also be adding a higher resolution solar resource data (10 km
ground resolution) for the southwestern U.S., and next year hope to have
a conterminous U.S. version of that data available. We also provide
access to a number of stand-alone Geospatial Toolkits that have been
created for international projects, to provide those countries with some
limited GIS querying capability. These toolkits include renewable
resource, infrastructure and other base data for the country as part of
the installation package.
There are many additional datasets that can be provided upon request,
but aren't distributed on the FTP site. Some of these datasets require
review of need and management approval before they can be sent. These
include the original raster power density datasets that the wind power
class shapefiles are created from; supplemental/unvalidated wind speed
and power information for different heights above ground and time
scales; wind measurement data; and solar modeled hourly values.
Contact persons:
Donna Heimiller Pamela Gray-Hann
Research Scientist (GIS) Webmaster for FTP site
National Renewable Energy Laboratory Phone:303-275-4626
1617 Cole Blvd FAX: 303-275-4675
Golden, CO 80401 [log in to unmask]
303-384-7098
[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
/(submitted by Anita Oser/)
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