Paper No. 13-0
COMMUNICATING GEOSCIENCE INFORMATION TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC: INNOVATIONS IN DATA-TRANSFER TECHNOLOGY
CURL, Douglas C., RUTHVEN, Carol L., and WEISENFLUH, Gerald A., Kentucky Geological Survey, Univ of Kentucky, 228 Mining and Mineral Resources Building, Lexington, KY 40506-0107, dcurl@kgs.mm.uky.edu

The Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS) is developing a system to make geologic databases available to the public. Achieving this objective has required communication and cooperation among the database developers, customer-service personnel who deliver the databases to the public and respond to inquiries, and customers who use the databases. The databases are provided using the Internet and CD-ROM media. It is easy to overestimate the “user-friendliness” of Internet and CD-ROM technology. The KGS experiences in delivering a catalog of publications online, a database of coal borehole records, and digitally vectorized geologic quadrangle data sets by CD-ROM illustrate what the developers of technology transfer can do to make the data and data-transfer techniques as “user-friendly”as possible. All three cases show that proper planning of the technology transfer and careful consideration of the audience is crucial. The potential audience who would benefit from access to and use of the data is often unfamiliar with the data and, in some cases, the data-transfer technique. Therefore, innovative use of data-transfer technology to address the audience in a way that does not overwhelm or confuse them, and properly and clearly explains the data is essential.

North-Central Section (36th) and Southeastern Section (51st), GSA Joint Annual Meeting (April 3–5, 2002)
Session No. 13
Electronic Communication of Geologic Information and Digital Geologic Mapping
Heritage Hall: Center
1:00 PM-5:00 PM, Wednesday, April 3, 2002
 

© Copyright 2002 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.