A Digital "Living" Library-A Prototype for Harvesting Ecological Data

Author: Sudha Ram
Organization: University of Arizona

College of Business and Public Administration
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
USA

To increase the efficiency of data collection and subsequent environmental decision making, the rate of data collection must be increased. In addition, the costs associated with the costs associated with managing the information and making the information available to the public in a user-friendly interface is an important goal for federal land managing agencies. To facilitate these goals and the goals of the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) program we have developed a digital "living" library that promotes data distribution and contribution using a Web interface. By providing the capability to share data and resources, important ecological data can be updated and distributed more efficiently. In addition, landscape-level determinations derived from the digital library can be more readily applied by management in day-to-day decision making processes and integrated with long-term land management policy development. Our digital library system not only allows users to search for and retrieve spatial data sets and other information, but is also able to grow dynamically through users' contributions of data. To facilitate data "harvesting," numerous tools and data protocols had to be developed to increase the the overall utility of the library and to assist with the identification of user needs and other data management issues such as security. The automated collection of natural and cultural resource information and associated metadata decreases maintenance requirements and delivers on the promise of a digital "living" library.